Then what is this silent melody sending its tunes from the depth of his soul?

It is weakness... without a doubt.

And the sky darkened all of a sudden, then smiled; the sad horizon frowned, then broke into a smile over a secret no one understands. And between this and that, and that and this, the youth pulled the rope of the net toward him for the last time with all his strength, brimming with revolt; but hardly had he done so than he stopped, exhausted and astonished, for his Herculean strength dwin-dled before that heavy load which dragged the net toward the bottom.

What could be down there?! And he lifted a disheveled lock of his straight hair from his brow and set to wiping away the drops that trickled from it.

What a... fool he is! What has he to do with the net now, and what does it matter to him anymore? Let him leave it in the fathomless deep forever... And he laughed a laugh of many meanings; but perhaps it was curiosity, or a clinging to the skirts of life, or something other than all of this, that stopped his laughter in his throat; whereupon he set to hauling on the rope with the pull of one who trusts himself anew...

The minutes followed one another, each dragging the next; a great fish glided swiftly past him, and a flash of heat lightning gleamed at the horizon.

But he noticed none of this, for his sole concern was directed wholly toward that heavy load; and his strength prevailed, and he hauled it out at last.

Oh... what is this? What a beautiful, tempting chest — never in his life had he seen its like. Good God! It is as if its glittering stones were set from the brilliant stars of heaven. But... what secrets might this chest hold?

It was not that miraculous chance that so gripped the despairing fish-erman as his desire to know what was still hidden in store for him;

and in that fine instant the last thought of doing away with him-self that had crossed his imag-ination vanished, and he began working at the chest's latch with the deftness of an expert, while his lips parted in a broad smile...

And at the last moment the chest opened, and there appeared to the youth inside it a fair young maiden whose like in splendor and loveliness he had never in his life beheld. The girl parted her lashes gently and began looking at him through them...

She saw youth, and strength, and beauty, and something wondrous and marvelous she did not understand.

She saw all this hidden behind the appearances of poverty, and she admired him, and wished that he would accept her condition... and rescue her:

And he saw the magic of the two dark eyes and the red of the two dewy lips, and the delicate, bewitching meanings flooded with freshness, in which tenderness came forth and life laughed; and he admired her, and wished that she would permit him to bow down before this beauty in a

prostration from which he would not raise his head until the day they are gathered up. But he froze and showed nothing, and remained in his place, humbled; and she began to converse with him in honeyed logic and mellow tones, saying:

"...Do you see this chest, O fortunate youth? It carries gold in plenty, and it is yours, lawful and good, if you take it in exchange for me... Will you do so? Or will you accept me instead of it?"

And her mouth broke into a

radiant smile which he fancied came with the threads of the sun that peeped just then from behind the clouds. In that moment he forgot his hunger, his poverty, and his despair; and life with all its charms was revealed to him between those two smiling lips, and he cried aloud:

"No — it is you I choose!"

You, O greatest heavenly gift the merciful Creator sends down to His wretched servants.

You, my adored maiden, whom I prefer

above the glories of the world — above everything else in exis-