"Nothing, sir."

"Nothing!--how is that?"

"Because," replied the old man, with characteristic simplicity, "I know
nothing myself."

"Why, then, were you instituted schoolmaster?"

"Why, sir, I had been taking care of the Waldbach pigs for a great
number of years, and when I got too old and infirm for that employment,
they sent me here to take care of the children."

* * * * *


PLANTING.

A custom prevailed in the neighbouring parts of Germany, where no farmer
was allowed to marry till he had planted and was "father of a stated
number of walnut trees, that law being inviolably observed," says
Evelyn, "for the extraordinary benefit which the trees afford the
inhabitants." What the Germans thus provided for by a wise law, Oberlin,
a pious pastor of Waldbach, required as an act of religious duty,
bringing that great principle into action on all occasions. Late in
autumn he addressed his parishioners thus:--

"Dear Friends--Satan, the enemy of mankind, rejoices when we demolish
and destroy; our Lord Jesus Christ, on the contrary, rejoices when we
labour for the public good.