After the feeling of exaltation that had come to the farmer as a result of his successful year, another mood had taken possession of him.  For a long time he had been going about feeling very humble and prayerful.  Again he walked alone at night thinking of God and as he walked he again connected his own figure with the figures of old days.  Under the stars he knelt on the wet grass and raised up his voice in prayer.  Now he had decided that like the men whose stories filled the pages of the Bible, he would make a sacrifice to God.  “I have been given these abundant crops and God has also sent me a boy who is called David,” he whispered to himself.  “Perhaps I should have done this thing long ago.”  He was sorry the idea had not come into his mind in the days before his daughter Louise had been born and thought that surely now when he had erected a pile of burning sticks in some lonely place in the woods and had offered the body of a lamb as a burnt offering, God would appear to him and give him a message.

More and more as he thought of the matter, he thought also of David and his passionate self-love was partially forgotten.  “It is time for the boy to begin thinking of going out into the world and the message will be one concerning him,” he decided.  “God will make a pathway for him.  He will tell me what place David is to take in life and when he shall set out on his journey.  It is right that the boy should be there.  If I am fortunate and an angel of God should appear, David will see the beauty and glory of God made manifest to man.  It will make a true man of God of him also.”

In silence Jesse and David drove along the road until they came to that place where Jesse had once before appealed to God and had frightened his grandson.  The morning had been bright and cheerful, but a cold wind now began to blow and clouds hid the sun.  When David saw the place to which they had come he began to tremble with fright, and when they stopped by the bridge where the creek came down from among the trees, he wanted to spring out of the phaeton and run away.

A dozen plans for escape ran through David’s head, but when Jesse stopped the horse and climbed over the fence into the wood, he followed.  “It is foolish to be afraid.  Nothing will happen,” he told himself as he went along with the lamb in his arms.  There was something in the helplessness of the little animal held so tightly in his arms that gave him courage.  He could feel the rapid beating of the beast’s heart and that made his own heart beat less rapidly.  As he walked swiftly along behind his grandfather, he untied the string with which the four legs of the lamb were fastened together.  “If anything happens we will run away together,” he thought.