NOT even the Scriptures can claim that goodness and purity have power to alter human fate; indeed, the Bible says in plain words:
"All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not."
Yet people persuade themselves that, for the doing of good, a man or a woman may obtain special dispensation of super-human endurance and strength.
When David arrived at Itanaca, he realized with a shock, which was the more severe because of the time which had passed since his last visit; that he had been living in the delusion of a special dispensation in regard to his mother.
To his father's perceptions, to those of David's sisters and brothers and to the neighbors, nothing markedly unusual was apparent; and David found his mother going about her usual duties but he saw alterations in her which alarmed him.
His father admitted, "Your mother is not as well as I would like. I have had her see Dr. Brailford and he is giving her a good tonic." Brailford was the local physician.
Deborah said to David: "Mother is thinner; and
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