“Well, stay around today and I’ll see what I can do.  I want some help, but I cannot pay high wages.”

“Never mind the wages,” said Rupert, “we’ll agree on that after a while.”

The young farmer saw that he had no common tramp to deal with, although he looked rough and travel-stained.

“I have been sick for the past few days,” explained Rupert, “and if you can trust me, I should like to rest up a bit before I go to work.  I’m too weak to do you much good yet.”

“That’ll be all right,” was the answer.  “I see you need something to eat this morning, even if you weren’t hungry last night.  Come with me to the house.”

So Rupert Ames remained with the farmer and did the chores around the house until he became stronger, when he helped with the harder work.  He was treated kindly by them all, and it was not long before he mingled freely with the family.

During this time Rupert realized that his right senses, as he called them, were coming back to him, and every night he thanked God in vocal prayer for his deliverance from a dark pit which seemed to have yawned before him.

The Jansons were newcomers in the West, and had much to learn about farming.  Mr. Janson was a Swede who had been in the country twenty years.  His wife and her cousin were from Norway, the former having been in the country long enough to become Americanized; it was two years only since the latter had emigrated from her native land, so she spoke English with a foreign accent.  Her name was Signe Dahl (first name pronounced in two syllables, Sig-ne).  She attracted Rupert’s attention from the first.  She had a complexion of pink and white, blue eyes, soft, light hair; but it was not her peculiar beauty alone that attracted him.  There was something else about her, an atmosphere of peace and assurance which Rupert could feel in her presence.  Naturally, she was reticent at first, but on learning to know Rupert, which she seemed to do intuitively, she talked freely with him, and even seemed pleased with his company.

Two weeks went by, and Rupert proffered to remain with Mr. Janson and help him with his harvesting.  The latter gladly accepted the offer, for he had by this time learned that Rupert Ames could give him many practical lessons in farming.

The song that Rupert heard that first evening continually rang in his ears.  He remembered some of the words, and, as he thought of them, strange ideas came to him.  One evening they were all sitting around the fire in the living room.  Rupert had been telling them some of his history, and when the conversation lagged, he asked the two cousins to sing that song about “O my Father.”  They readily consented.

“A most beautiful song,” said Rupert at its close; “and so strange.  It seems to bring me back for an instant to some former existence, if that were possible.  What does it mean: 

  ’In thy holy habitation,
    Did my spirit once reside;
  In my first primeval childhood
    Was I nurtured near thy side.’