Then for a time thought ceased in exhaustion. When it returned, lo! he was in peace, in the heart of a calm unspeakable. How it came he could not tell, for he had not been aware of its approach; but the contest was over, and in a few minutes he was fast asleep--ten times his own because a thousand times another’s--one with him whom all men in one could not comprehend, whom yet the heart of every true child lays hold upon and understands. I would not have it supposed that, although the crisis was past, there was no more stormy weather. Often it blew a gale--often a blast would come creeping in--almost always in the skirts of the hope that God would never require such a sacrifice of him. But he never again found he could not pray. Recalling the strife and the great peace, he made haste to his master, compelling the refractory slave in his heart to be free, and cry, “Do thy will, not mine.” Then would the enemy withdraw, and again he breathed the air of the eternal. When a man comes to the point that he will no longer receive anything save from the hands of him who has the right to withhold, and in whose giving alone lies the value of possession, then is he approaching the inheritance of the saints in light, of those whose strength is made perfect in weekness. But there are those who for the present it is needless to trouble any more than the chickens about the yard. Their hour will come, and in the meantime they are counted the fortunate ones of the earth. CHAPTER XLVI. A REST. But now James Gracie fell sick. They removed him therefore from the men’s quarters, and gave him Cosmo’s room, that he might be better attended to, and warmer than in his own. Cosmo put up a bed for himself in his father’s room, and Grizzie and Aggie slept together; so now the household was gathered literally under one roof--that of the kitchen-tower, as it had been called for centuries. James’s attack was serious, requiring much attention, and involving an increase of expenditure which it needed faith to face. But of course Cosmo did not shrink from it: so long as his money lasted, his money should go. James himself objected bitterly to such waste, as he called it, saying what remained of his life was not worth it. But the laird, learning the mood the old man was in, rose, and climbed the stair, and stood before his bed, and said to him solemnly, “Jeames, wha are ye to tell the Lord it’s time he sud tak ye? what _kin’_ o’ faith is ’t, to refuse a sup, ’cause ye see na anither spunefu’ upo’ the ro’d ahin’ ’t?” James hid his old face in his old hands. The laird went back to his bed, and nothing more ever passed on the subject. The days went on, the money ran fast away, no prospect appeared of more, but still they had enough to eat.