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Power Systems
Microgrid
Architectures,
Control and
Protection
Methods
Power Systems
Electrical power has been the technological foundation of industrial societies for
many years. Although the systems designed to provide and apply electrical energy
have reached a high degree of maturity, unforeseen problems are constantly
encountered, necessitating the design of more efficient and reliable systems based
on novel technologies. The book series Power Systems is aimed at providing
detailed, accurate and sound technical information about these new developments in
electrical power engineering. It includes topics on power generation, storage and
transmission as well as electrical machines. The monographs and advanced
textbooks in this series address researchers, lecturers, industrial engineers and
senior students in electrical engineering. ** Power Systems is indexed in Scopus**
Editors
Microgrid Architectures,
Control and Protection
Methods
123
Editors
Naser Mahdavi Tabatabaei Ersan Kabalci
Department of Electrical Engineering Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Seraj Higher Education Institute Department, Faculty of Engineering
Tabriz, Iran and Architecture
Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University
Nicu Bizon Nevsehir, Turkey
Faculty of Electronics, Communications
and Computers
University of Pitesti
Pitesti, Arges, Romania
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Dedicated to
all our teachers and colleagues
who enabled us to write this book,
and our family and friends
for supporting us all along
Foreword
There are specific interests for the integration of distributed generation systems and
reliable consuming networks in the microgrid architectures. The microgrid topolo-
gies are designed as the innovative electrical systems, power distribution networks
and also independent small power grids. The nature of microgrid operations includes
ownership, reliability and locality. The microgrid development is mostly dependent
on microprocessors and communication technologies to provide more complicated
inverters and load controllers and also offer adequate bandwidth.
Microgrid control and protection based on different interfaces are also important
concepts in combining power balancing, optimization and smart activating as
grid-connected or islanded modes. The microgrid control and protection include the
regulation of voltage and frequency and managing of real and reactive power for the
generation units and energy storages.
The book generally explains the fundamentals and contemporary materials in
microgrid architectures, control and protection. It will be very efficient for electrical
engineers and researchers to have the book which contains important subjects in
considering modeling, analysis and practice related to microgrids. The book
comprises knowledge, theoretical and practical issues as well as up-to-date contents
in these issues and methods for designing, controlling and protecting of AC–DC
microgrid networks.
Some textbooks and monographs are previously presented for people who want
to learn more on the microgrids. The worth of the present book is that it tries to put
forward some practical ways for microgrid planning and modeling, control, pro-
tection, infrastructure, converters, energy storage systems, efficiencies, assessments
and quality issues which are now more organized. The editors wisely designated the
topics to be preserved, and the chapters written by well-recognized experts in the
field are placed in three parts.
The book introduces the reader to the modeling, analysis, operation, control and
protection of the microgrids. Then, the main subjects related to planning, con-
verters, hybrid energy resources, energy management, adaptive and modified
control and protection are presented and explained. The book also includes infor-
mative case studies and many instances.
vii
viii Foreword
The book can be used in the classroom, to teach microgrid courses to graduate
students, and be suggested as further reading to undergraduate students in engi-
neering sciences. It will also be a valuable information resource for the researchers
and engineers concerned with microgrid issues or involved in the development of
distributed generation applications.
The microgrid researches have been extensively increased and widespread since the
last decade. The enhanced use of distributed generation, distributed energy
resources, renewable energy sources, energy storage technologies and increased
power requirements has promoted microgrid researches. The improvements and
outcomes of microgrid researches facilitate to overcome power system problems
related to resiliency, flexibility, stability, efficiency and capacity limitations.
A crucial component of this new grid type is apparently power electronics devices
interfacing sources and utility grid. This interface is required to provide control and
protection features depending on device topologies and control software.
Moreover, the generated and converted power should meet the grid codes and
should comply with international standards in terms of power quality, efficiency and
sustainability. The purpose of this book is to present a broader view of emerging
microgrid architectures, control and protection methods and communication sys-
tems, approaching the following subjects: (1) presenting detailed surveys for a wide
variety of microgrid architectures and emerging microgrid approaches; (2) concepts
and visualization of microgrid concepts and related power electronics applications
for improved microgrids; (3) providing detailed knowledge on wireless and
emerging communication methods used for control and protection issues in
microgrids; (4) presenting the virtual inertia and energy storage systems that are key
components of microgrid integration to utility grid; (5) contents on relation of smart
grid and microgrid applications along IoT and wireless communication systems;
and (6) discussions on the issues related to deployment and development of control,
protection and communication technologies at future microgrid scope.
Microgrid Architectures, Control and Protection Methods is a book aimed to
highlight the microgrid operation and planning issues using different methods
which include planning and modeling, AC and DC hybrid microgrid, microgrid
infrastructure, power electronic converters in microgrid, energy storage systems in
microgrid, energy management in microgrids, PV microgrids, microgrid control
strategies, intelligent and adaptive control in microgrid, optimal microgrid
ix
x Preface
is a technical, operational and economic concept that is located in the digital part
of the microgrids and provides facilities that allow greater flexibility of the EPS.
The power electronic converters have been detailed in Chaps. 6 and 7 in terms of
AC–DC rectifiers, inverters (DC–AC converters) and DC–DC converters used in
DC and AC microgrids. So, Chap. 6 analyzes the main types, circuit structures and
functions of power electronic converters used in DC microgrid and highlights the
major advantage of DC microgrids compared to AC microgrids. Then, Chap. 7
analyzes the main power electronic converters used in AC microgrid and highlights
the major advantage of AC microgrids compared to DC microgrids. The chapters
review the main performance indicators and standards for DC and AC microgrids,
respectively, and the conclusions are supported by simulation performed for some
topologies.
Chapter 8 explains the important role of the energy storage system (ESS) in
enhancing the stability of grid-connected and islanded microgrid by modeling the
power flow balance on DC or AC buses and including appropriate case studies. The
standards IEC/ISO 62264 and IEEE 2000 related to interconnection of the wind
turbine farms and photovoltaic systems into microgrids have been presented as
well.
Chapter 9 shows the design and experimental investigations of a fuel cell (FC)–
electrolyzer-based energy storage system integrated into a microgrid. The
hydrogen-based ESS based on proton-exchange membrane (PEM) FC system and
solid polymer electrolyzer seem to be the best alternative to store energy due to
their simple structure, high power density, quick start, no moving parts and superior
reliability and durability, low operating temperature and environmental aspects.
Chapter 10 analyzes the requirements for the energy management system
(EMS), which are identified as follows: (1) determining the amount of
produced/consumed energy by the generation units/consumers; (2) ensuring the
generation and consumption balance; (3) ensuring compliance and implementation
of the rules for connecting the microgrid to the upper distribution system; (4) op-
timal utilization of its existing resources; (5) minimizing the overall operational
costs; (6) separating the microgrid from the upper grid in case of emergencies; and
(7) providing convenient control strategy for re-connecting to the upper network
after the islanded operation. The role of subsystems of the energy management
system (such as communication systems and smart meters) is also discussed in the
frame of the main EMSs proposed in the literature, highlighting the pro and cons
of the centralized and decentralized EMSs. The supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA) system can be a solution for decentralized EMSs.
Chapter 11 proposes a technical solution to improve the efficiency of a photo-
voltaic (PV) power plant within an area of seventy hectares through control,
surveillance, metering and monitoring of the system from distance. The SCADA
system offers information in real time for the control system about total and daily
energy delivered (kWh), weather info, alarms, etc. The received information can be
compared with the data stored in the same period of the past years, in order to
establish the productive efficiency of the PV power plant.
xii Preface
protection and control for grid-connected and islanded microgrids, as will be shown
in the next chapters.
Chapter 26 deals with the protection and automation requirements of the
microgrids in the frame of smart grid, including the protection schemes and
developments in the related fields. The chapter concentrates on devolution of power
generation and the conversion of the radial distribution network into a microgrid. It
also discusses on the protection and control requirements of a microgrid, islanding
detection and management scheme.
Chapter 27 presents the fault detection methods and protection devices in
low-voltage DC (LVDC), medium-voltage DC (MVDC) and high-voltage DC
(HVDC) grids. The main protection schemes are presented regarding DC micro-
grids. The fault detection methods are surveyed considering voltage prediction,
disturbance detection, and fault classification and locating methods.
Chapter 28 analyzes the solutions for protecting smart grids using the protocol
IEC 61850 based on intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). Based on case studies,
the chapter presents the remote-controlled reclosed scheme, the adaptive protection
of a distributed system based on the loop automation scheme and the main
advantages for the consumers by implementing the restoration scheme.
Chapter 29 presents the protection techniques based on the IEC 61850 protocol
using case studies for data communication systems between substations. The IEC
61850 is implemented for real-time communication between IEDs based on Generic
Object Oriented Substation Event (GOOSE) messages.
Chapter 30 highlights the main power quality issues in the microgrid, and
solutions to handle these issues and their operating principle are explained. Load
pulses are frequently encountered in microgrid and need to be mitigated using
appropriate control of hybrid energy storage system (ESS) based on different power
storage devices such as the ultracapacitors (UCs) stacks, superconducting magnetic
energy storage (SMES) devices and high-speed flywheel energy systems (FESs).
Chapter 31 approaches the control and protection of the smart microgrids using
the concepts from IoT and highlights the IoT role in creating and developing smart
microgrids, including benefits, challenges and risks, in order to reveal a variety of
mechanisms, methods and procedures built to control and protect smart microgrids.
Thus, microgrids must benefit by large opportunity to implement the IoT mecha-
nisms, because they are composed of equipment that demands sensing, connectivity
and analytics technologies to operate at the highest level.
Therefore, the proposed book tries to clear the aforementioned approaches, by
presenting intuition explanations about principles and application of microgrid
structure and operation. Moreover, the book tries to put forward some practical
ways for microgrid analysis.
Moreover, the book will be helpful for the future research to be done in the field
of electrical engineering and communication engineering. It also explores the recent
progress on several microgrid control and protection technologies and their per-
formance evaluation. The book has the wider coverage ranging the topics from
essentials of microgrids to enhanced communication systems such as wireless and
Internet of things (IoT). It can also help in understanding the role of emerging
Preface xv
xvii
xviii Contents
xxi
xxii Contributors
5G 5th Generation
AAFC Aqueous Alkaline Fuel Cell
AC Alternative Current
ACE Area Correction Error
ACMG Alternating Current Microgrid
ACS Ant Colony System
ADC Analog-to-Digital Converter
ADM Alternating Direction Method
ADN Active Distribution Network
AE Aqua Electrolyzer
AES All-Electric Ship
AFC Alkaline Fuel Cell
AGC Automatic Generation Control
AHC Adaptive Heuristic Critic
AI Artificial Intelligence
AMI Advanced Metering Infrastructure
ANN Artificial Neural Network
ANSI American National Standards Institute
aPESC Asymptotic PESC
aPESCH1 Asymptotic PESC based on FFT
APP Auxiliary Problem Principle
AR Average Reward
ARR Automatic Release of Reserve
AS Ancillary Services
ATS Automatic Transfer Switch
AVR Automatic Voltage Regulator
BCBG Bottom-Contact Bottom Gate
BESS Battery Energy Storage Systems
BOS Balance of System
BPDC Bipolar DC
xxvii
xxviii Abbreviations and Acronyms
LVDC Low-Voltage DC
LVG Low-Voltage Grid
LVRT Low Voltage Ride Through
M2M Machine to Machine
MAC Media Access Control
MACCB Mechanical AC Circuit Breaker
MAPE Mean Absolute Percentage Error
MAS Multi-Agent System
MC Microgeneration Control
MCB Mechanical Circuit Breaker
MCCB Molded Case CB
MCCS Microgrid Central Control System
MCFC Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell
MCL MiCOM Configuration Language
MCS Microsource Control System
MCT MOS-Controlled Thyristor
MDMS Meter Data Management System
MEC Microgrid Emergency Control
MEMS Microgrid Energy Management System
MF Membership Function
MG Microgrid
MGCC Microgrid Central Controller
MGMS Microgrid Management System
MGO Microgrid Operator
MGOS Microgrid Operation State
MILP Mixed Integer Linear Programming
MINLP Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming
MLI Multilevel Inverter
MMC Multi-Modular Converter
MMS Manufacturing Messaging Specification
MN Micro-Network
MOSFET Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor
MP Multilayer Perception
MPC Model Prediction Control
MPI Message Passing Interface
MPP Maximum Power Point
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking
MU Merging Unit
MUT Master User Terminal
MV Mean Value
MV Medium Voltage
MVA Mega-Volt-Ampere
MVDC Medium-Voltage DC
NCS Nano-Core–Shell
NCS-TFT Thin Film Transistors with Nano-Core-Shell materials
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
'Fairacre, 1st March.
'I have just returned from Mrs. Stein's, laden with roses and early
white China asters and double balsams of the most celestial pink.
You know of old what a delightful event a visit to Rosenthal is. But
you do not know what it is to listen for hours to Professor Kellwitz,
the Primitive Dwelling man, talking for hours on the præ-
Deuteronomic Pentateuch and "Die assyrisch-babylonisch
Keilinschriften," and the early twilight of man's history on the earth.
Nay, he one day went back still further, even to the time when our
world was without form and void—when what is above was not
called heaven, and that which is the earth beneath had not a name
—ere a sprout had yet sprung forth and "the generative processes at
work were all hidden in chaotic vapour." The two old friends spoke,
of course, to each other in German, and sometimes I lost the thread
of what they were saying, and I would not ask a question for the
world. I love too well to listen to men talking when they are
oblivious of a woman's presence. The second day I was there is
especially memorable to me. Mrs. Stein was busy preserving Duke
cherries in brandy. The sparrows are so bad this year that the
cherries have been gathered off some trees before ripening. Don't
you think the sparrow in Australia is an awful example of a bird with
a conscience seared as with a hot iron? In his native countries he is,
it seems, undainty to a discreditable degree, seldom tasting fruit and
never red nectar. But with us he not only becomes an epicure
beyond the wildest dreams of the pagan world, but a reckless
destroyer—a small Attila with a pair of brown wings. Not merely
does he disdain to eat the skin of a freestone peach and the
transparent rind of sweetwater grapes, but for each one he eats he
spoils twenty by pecking at them. Here at Rosenthal, where he lives
meal-free and at ease, the ungrateful little varlet nibbles two score
of cherries to each one he eats.
'Ah, true! I have not told you about the second day of my visit.
There was rather a horrid gully wind blowing. So early in the
afternoon the Doctor and the Professor established themselves in
the western veranda with the curtains drawn, with their pipes lit,
and between them a table that groaned under its array of Lager-bier
bottles. I was sitting, with a book and a small Rupert garment half
made, by the French window of the drawing-room, when the two
took up their quarters close beside me, with only the window-
curtains between us. There were peals of Homeric laughter as they
recalled incidents of their student days; and there was talk of a
Lischen, who seems to have been celebrated for the length of her
golden hair, "long since turned to dust." Then they talked of their
work. The Doctor told tales of the early days of the colony, and how,
twenty-four years ago, he and Courtland became intimate friends.
When he spoke of father's learning and rare goodness of nature, it
was all I could do to keep myself from stepping out and kissing him
on the mouth. Then the Professor spoke of his early struggles. For
many years he held a subordinate post in a small university, where
he had three-quarters of the day to himself. He seems from the first
to have been devoted to that kind of literature which no reference
library should be without. One of the incidents he told was of a far
journey he made during one vacation to a little town, to which some
Grand-Duke had bequeathed a singular collection of books. It was a
long journey, and cost more than he anticipated; so that before he
returned he was forced to leave his watch in pawn, though he
trudged the greater part of the way. And the object of all this was to
authenticate one date. On hearing this, I shifted my chair, so that I
could see the Professor's face better. A spare keen face it is, with
many lines and furrows, and yet distinctly human, as though in all
his researches and wanderings he had never lost sight of the fact
that man himself is a more insoluble interesting problem than any
facts to be gleaned regarding him.
'There was a sound of cork-drawing, and discovering that I was
thirsty, I went into the dining-room for a glass of seltzer. When I
returned the talk had veered to Australia—its inhabitants and
resources, and future prospects. The Professor found a grave
drawback in the thought that as most colonists originally came to
the country for material reasons, true patriotism must be of tardy
growth: "Your young people do not love it as their native land in the
same way that ours do."
'"Yes, Herr Professor, they do!" I cried, obeying an irresistible
impulse to bear witness to the love I have for my own country. And
then a long animated talk followed, during which I was obliged to
turn to my own tongue—for the Professor talks English much better
than I talk German. I drew up the veranda curtain, and bade the
good Pundit mark the loveliness of my birthplace—the city with its
white buildings and scores of spires encircled by shady parks, the
sea beyond stretching to the western horizon, the fertile plain to the
north sprinkled with wide fields that yield bountiful harvests from
year to year; the hills close at hand, with their tree-crowned heights,
and graceful curves, and shadowy gullies—all thickly studded with
prosperous homes, with orchards, and vineyards, and flowery
gardens, and olivets—and over all the overflowing sunshine, which
encompasses the land year in, year out. Who could be born in such
a place and not love it for its beauty and fertility? If our fathers were
crowded out of the old world—or left it because they feared their
children might sink into poverty—was not that an added reason to
love the new one, which had offered them comfort and prosperity,
and a fair field for the energies of their sons? We have great wastes
and atrocious hot winds—but shall we receive good and not evil
also?
'"Yes, after all, each one must remain in his own skin," said Dr.
Stein, taking up the parable. "If I were in bitter poverty in the
Fatherland, as many men are who are more gifted than I am, I
might be a dangerous Socialist hatching plots against the safety of
the State. There is a point beyond which history and the traditions of
the past touch the heart but little. The great kings and nobles who
figure so largely in our history were mostly men who commanded
the lives and wages of others, while they themselves were hedged
round with privileges and wanton luxury. I want my own share of the
pleasant things of life, and the country which gives me this, and in
which my children were born, has as strong a claim on their love and
gratitude as the oldest country of them all. Practically you owe your
life to the country in which you were born. Stella, here, who is the
granddaughter of a man that fell fighting for Old England, do you
think she would not make as much sacrifice for her native land as
any German maiden of old times?" "Hear, hear," said I, clapping my
hands in honour of myself in true democratic fashion.
'Enter Mrs. Stein, followed by Hetty with a trayful of slender pink
glasses, and a flagon of Rosenthal cup. The pure juice of the
Australian grape mellowed by ten years' repose in the Doctor's cellar.
It was a lovely amber colour, with an excellent bouquet, and though
I always like wine best when I do not drink it, I felt bound to honour
the Professor's toast, which was "The Old Fatherland and the New."
We became great friends, and, in fact, I have promised that when
you and I go on our travels we shall pay him a visit in Berlin.'
CHAPTER X.
'Fairacre.
CHAPTER XII.
'Last night the rain came down in torrents; towards morning there
was a thunderstorm, of which I heard nothing. But to-day the air
and the sky are clear and fresh, the Torrens is babbling, and the
birds are singing the blithest legends imaginable all over the Park
Lands. The Major and Mr. Ferrier are spending the day with us. Poor
Mr. Ferrier is forever telling us about the conversion of some
aborigine. I often wish we could keep an old black fellow on hand at
Fairacre for him to convert from time to time, and then perhaps he
would spare us these endless recitals. But my heart smites me for
speaking like this of the zealous ex-missionary, and I am sure
mother likes to listen to him. Then he is so entirely in earnest.
Perhaps you would like to know his story of to-day? It was about a
half-caste boy who, after being at the Mandurang Mission Station for
a year, began to show signs of repentance and grace. One day he
stole some sugar. "Was that after he showed these signs?" asked the
Major. From some people the inquiry would sound ironical, but not
from the dear guileless Major, who is evidently quite unused to
theological phrases, and was merely trying hard to comprehend all
he heard.
'"Yes, sir," answered Mr. Ferrier; "it was some weeks after we
had great hopes of him. The old Adam is strong in all of us, but
perhaps especially so in our poor half-caste natives. Do you know,
my dear sir, that there was a canon law of the Church in the early
ages which rendered converts from heathenism ineligible for the
priesthood to the second and third generation? Well, I knew Thomas
—we always gave our people Christian names at their baptism—had
taken the sugar; but I said nothing to him. I felt the time had come
when he must be allowed to stand or fall. The boy was dear to my
wife, and she wished me to take him aside and remonstrate with
him. But I said, 'He knows good from evil now; we must see
whether the root of the matter is in him.' We read the Word of God,
and had prayers in the evening as usual. My dear wife offered the
prayer; she wrestled with God mightily for the soul of the half-caste
boy. Ah, my dear friends, I wish you had known her—not a thought
for self. Her only thought was to win souls for the Saviour, and many
of these poor people were verily brought through her means to the
foot of the Cross. It was only nine months after this it pleased God
to take her from me."
'There was such pathos in the old man's voice, it gave one a
lump in the throat. The Major hastily drew out his handkerchief and
pretended to cough. But Dorothy at four and a half can make-
believe much better than the Major at fifty-seven.
'Mr. Ferrier went on to tell how, after the natives retired for the
night, he sat in the sitting-room writing out his monthly report,
leaving a blank where he was to write of Thomas, till he found
whether he would repent him of his theft. His wife sat with a book in
her hand, but he knew that she was crying, not reading. At last a
tap came at the open window, and a timid voice saying: "Missie,
missie, me want to gabber!" It was Thomas. The wife at once went
out, and the boy talked to her for some time. Presently she came in
with "a light on her face," as Mr. Ferrier expressed it, and she said:
"Paul, you need not leave a blank for Thomas now. The Lord has
given him to us as a prey snatched from the snarer." "And though he
had a passionate temper, and sometimes gave way to it, yet from
that day till the hour of his death I never had reason to doubt that
he was a chosen vessel of grace," said Mr. Ferrier solemnly.
'No one could doubt the good man's sincerity. But I confess I
never hear him talk in this fashion without a great longing to know
what conception an Australian aborigine could really form of the
profoundly metaphysical dogmas of Christianity. They are so
kneaded into our literature, so imbedded in the marrow of our minds
by inheritance and instruction, we could not if we would really cast
them from us at least as phases of thought. But a savage who
cannot count beyond three, and goes out to murder some tribal foe
because a kinsman has been killed by the fall of a tree—what idea
looms up in the twilight of his mind when he is kept at a mission and
taught the Creed and the Ten Commandments? Here is an anecdote
I fished from Mr. Ferrier, when I was trying to glean aboriginal myths
from him. An old man, badly wounded, came to the mission one day.
They nursed him and fed him, and he seemed so docile and to
accept all he was taught so readily, that they thought he was in a
short time ready for baptism. One thing puzzled them, however.
Though he bathed often, and had clean clothing on, a peculiar odour
always hung about him. A few days before he was to be baptized, it
suddenly struck Mr. Ferrier that this was caused by something with
which he smeared his hair. But this was not the case. It was the
kidney-fat of an enemy rolled up, and secured among his locks. He
would allow no one to touch or remove it, for it was a point of
honour with him to keep this ghastly memento until he had also
murdered the brother of his victim. In the meantime he was very
anxious to be baptized.
'The rain has rather battered some of our chrysanthemum
bushes. But then there are such angelic multitudes—in all shades—
white and pale-cream, pink and rose; red are our special favourites
among the Japanese. This last shade has for me as irresistible a
charm as the pink ear of the maiden which in Tom's Turkish song
robbed her lover of his reason.'
CHAPTER XIII.
'Fairacre, 20th April.
'Fanny Harrison has returned from her Melbourne visit, and has been
telling us tales about your overworking yourself—visiting sick people
day and night—reading to incurables and blind people by the hour—
making superhuman efforts to save larrikins from themselves. Don't,
dear darling; at any rate not so much. It gave me a shiver all down
the vertebræ when I thought, "What if Cuthbert should turn out one
of those clergymen who take life so seriously that they die of it like a
dose of arsenic?" Do not forget that it was a neglected cold when he
was so much engrossed with the sick and poor one hard winter that
brought on the lung complaint of which father died.
'I cannot get over a certain awkwardness of not knowing exactly
what to say when I first visit people who are very poor, and
hopelessly ill. So I mostly listen to them, and read a little only if they
wish it. Poor Thomson seems to like this, for the last time I visited
him he aired his grievances. People are very kind, he said, and lots
of ladies always visit him; but they do read so much to him. "No
doubt 'tis very good of them, but when a chap lies in bed month
after month, never expectin' to get up again in health, and often
cussing himself for having been a fool and partly to blame for his
misfortune—why, then, a lump out o' the Bible don't seem to
hearten him up much. Now, there's Mrs. Cannister and Mrs.
Meadows, and her dorters—'tis my belief as they uses Bibles not
properly divided into chapters. In course there's a good deal of it
taken up with Jew names, and stories not meant for gineral use. But
I don't see why them ladies should pick out the melanchorliest
psalmses for me. Well, I mean them as is all about the horrors of
death bein' on me, and the waters goin' over me, and my eyes bein'
consumed from weeping, and bein' a worm and no man, and the
arrers sticking fast in me, and bein' in a pit, and in a dry thirsty land,
and arskin' the Lord why He cast me off for iver, and that I forgit to
eat my bread, bein' like a howl in the desert and a perlican in the
wilderness, and a sparrer atop o' the house without a mate, which is
what niver happens, as far as I know the varmin; and coals of
juniper, and scattered at the grave's mouth and lying in wait for my
soul. Yes, Miss Stella, ye may laugh, but it's true—the creepingest
things. Yes, I remember what's read to me pretty well, but then I've
heerd it all over and over agin—some days twicet over.
'"And then Mrs. Cannister—she sits there as you may be now,
only more frontin' me, so that she can fix her eyes onto me—and
she reg'lar ivery week says to me: 'Now, my good man'—if there's
anything I hates it's them words; if she said 'my wastin' away toad,'
I'd like it better—'now, my good man, do you not begin to feel that
it's all well, and all for the best in the hands of the Lord?' And if I'm
tired I just mostly gives a nod, so as she may stop jawing. But other
times I says: 'I donno as to things being so very well. If my family
was pervided for, an' I didn't lie awake half the night coughin' and
spittin', I might be more sartin on the point. As to things bein' in the
hands of the Lord, I know well, if I'd have been stiddier and
different-like in many ways, I wouldn't be in the fix I'm in now.'
'"When I says anythin' like that, the old dame looks for a more
dismaller psalm the next time. It licks me, though, how people can
go on saying it's all in the hands of the Almighty, and He does
everything for the best. Now, Miss Stella, if you take it that me—and
a good many of the chaps I've knowed—was the handiwork of the
Lord, I'd like to know who has spiled more horns nor He before
making a good spoon!"
'You may not think very highly of this man's theology, but I like
him for his honesty in admitting that he is to blame for what he calls
the "fix" he is in, and a straighter way of looking at things than
people generally allow themselves.'
'The Fortuniana and tea-roses, and the heliotrope and various other
sweet-smelling flowers, still flourish in our garden in golden
abundance. I brought a great posy to Frau Kettig this afternoon,
with various other things of a more material kind, but the flowers
delighted her most.
'Yes; I have just returned from seeing her. How angelically good
and uncomplaining she is all through her illness! She is more grateful
for being destitute than I am for all I possess. I assure you, dear, I
threw stones at myself nearly all the way home. I talked with the
dear old woman for a long time, and read her favourite hymn to her,
"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott." Then she chanted the two first verses
—her thin, old, toil-marked hands devoutly clasped, her eyes half
closed.... Through the little window at the foot of her bed I could
see the sky, clear blue and serene like a great heavenly web woven
throughout of hope and love.
'"Surely it must be so," I thought, looking at the frail old woman
with her load of eighty winters—with all her cruel bereavements and
losses, and now in her diseased old age, after moiling like a slave for
sixty-eight years, dependent on charity for her bread, yet lifting up
her trembling aged voice and hands in tearful love and gratitude to
God—the great Father in whose hands are a thousand worlds full of
treasures—who yet has bereft this sincere loving soul of all. If there
were not some tremendous force of love behind the "mocks of this
world," could spirit achieve so signal a triumph over matter?
'"It is a fair summer day of the Lord, full of His sunshine, and
yet cool; and the flowers thou hast brought me, beloved child, take
me back to the sweet Thuringian woods," she said, with the simple
directness which makes the grand old German sound like one's
mother-tongue. I could not trust myself to speak. After a little she
said, as if suspecting that I was too sorry for her: "When one no
longer hopes to rise again, how good and dear it is to think on the
day when all waiting and weariness are forgotten in beholding the
face of the beloved Redeemer!"
'Here is Fatima at my elbow, rubbing herself against me and
purring benevolently, looking a little askance at Dustiefoot, who has
indeed too often tried to make a plaything of her tail. But he is fast
asleep just now, with his nose against my shoe. Fatima likes those
lucid intervals in which Dustiefoot slumbers and she can purr of
"auld langsyne" without interruption. Dear old tabby! tell me quick
and tell me true, is your ardent liking for fish a proof that in another
world you will sail a boat and cast a net into the sea? Certainly,
though you love fish even to felony, you cannot go a-fishing in the
life that now is—which things are a parable. I begin to see that this
infatuated pen of mine will get me into trouble if I do not stop.'
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
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