As this aged minister, with the beautiful face that God gives to
all who love Him and follow His commandments, spoke of his youth,
he looked wistfully around the faded parlour.

"It is like a dream," he said. "The first time I entered this room
the thought passed through me that I would cut down that cherry-
tree, because it kept out the light, but, you see, it outlives me.
I grew old while looking for the axe. Only yesterday I was the
young minister, Mr. Dishart, and to-morrow you will be the old
one, bidding good-bye to your successor."

His eyes came back to Gavin's eager face.

"You are very young, Mr. Dishart?"

"Nearly twenty-one."

"Twenty-one! Ah, my dear sir, you do not know how pathetic that
sounds to me. Twenty-one! We are children for the second time at
twenty-one, and again when we are grey and put all our burden on
the Lord. The young talk generously of relieving the old of their
burdens, but the anxious heart is to the old when they see a load
on the back of the young. Let me tell you, Mr. Dishart, that I
would condone many things in one-and-twenty now that I dealt
hardly with at middle age. God Himself, I think, is very willing
to give one-and-twenty a second chance."

"I am afraid," Gavin said anxiously, "that I look even younger."