The miser's money was taken from him by his enemy; the lover of the wanton woman found her faithless. The steward of the rich man gave his lord's gains to another, and while the king went forth to conquer other lands an enemy came unawares and took his country. The husbandman who would reap his grain saw not the rain-clouds gathering above, or the thunder thickening behind the mountain; and the sailor who left the harbour in fair weather heard not the distant moaning of the wind that soon would lash the waves into a storm that would engulf him.
"And I saw, as the preacher saith, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but that victory is only for them who wait patiently for the Lord. And I wept at the remembrance of the years that I had lost, of the houses I had builded, the orchards and the gardens I had planted; and I saw that all the labour of man is for himself, and that yet withal he is never satisfied."
