disappoint your rather unreasonable wishes. What you say is admirably
true, with this misfortune, that your good intentions are too late.
Like the rest of the world you are ready to seize the opportunity when
it is past. You should have been kind _then_. You should have advised
_then_. You should have yielded _then_. You should have loved your
brothers and sisters while you had them. It is too late now.'

"With this he drove on, and spoke no more, and poor Melchior stared
sadly out of the window. As he was gazing at the crowd, he suddenly
saw the dog-cart, in which were his brother and his wretched
companions. Oh, how old and worn he looked! and how ragged his clothes
were! The men seemed to be trying to persuade him to do something that
he did not like, and they began to quarrel; but in the midst of the
dispute he turned his head and caught sight of the old coach; and
Melchior seeing this, waved his hands, and beckoned with all his
might. The brother seemed doubtful; but Melchior waved harder, and
(was it fancy?) Time seemed to go slower. The brother made up his
mind; he turned and jumped from the dog-cart as he had jumped from the
old coach long ago, and ducking in and out among the horses and
carriages, ran for his life. The men came after him; but he ran like
the wind--pant, pant, nearer, nearer; at last the coach was reached,
and Melchior seized the prodigal by his rags and dragged him in.

"'Oh, thank GOD, I have got you safe, my brother!'

"But what a brother! with wasted body and sunken eyes; with the old
curly hair turned to matted locks, that clung faster to his face than
the rags did to his trembling limbs; what a sight for the
opera-glasses of the crowd! What a subject for the tongues that were
ever wagging, and complimenting, and backbiting, and lying, all in a