of effort, one, in which his naturally expansive nature found free
scope. He became an active, devoted, joyous follower of the Great
Master, and, thenceforward, desired nothing so much as to labor in his
service.

About a year after this important change, a circumstance occurred
which altered the course of his outward life.

It happened that a stranger came to pass a night at his, house. During
the conversation of a long winter evening, his curiosity became
greatly excited, in an account, given by his guest, of the Miramichi
region. He was astonished at the moral darkness reigning there. The
place was distant, and, at that time, almost inaccessible to any, save
the strong and hardy. But the light of life ought to be thrown into
that darkness. Who should go as a torch-bearer? The inquiry had
scarcely risen in his breast, before he thought he heard the words
spoken almost audibly, _Thou must go_.

Here, a peculiarity of the good blacksmith must be explained.
Possessed of great practical wisdom and sagacity, he was yet easily
affected by preternatural influences. He was subject to very strong
"impressions of mind", as he called them, by which he was urged to
pursue one course of conduct instead of another; to follow out one
plan of business in preference to another, even when there seemed to
be no apparent reason, why the one course was better than its
alternative. He had sometimes obeyed these impressions, sometimes had
not. But he thought he had found, in the end, that he should have
invariably followed them.

A particular instance confirmed him in this belief. One day, being in