profession. One day when, after pursuing their appointed studies, they were coming merrily down the stairs, Hans, in a burst of good humor and glee, leaped on his comrade’s back, but in so doing the latter fell, and death followed the fall a few days later. With his dying breath he begged his mother, who was a widow and with him was losing her only child, to take Hans, for love of him, as a son in his stead. The mother, however, died almost simultaneously with her son, but in accordance with her will the very considerable fortune she left fell to Hans.
It was a long time before Hans recovered from this shock. An extended journey abroad so far roused him as to enable him to resume his theological studies and carry them through; but he could not be persuaded to make any use of his degree.
His father’s one hope had been to see him established as his assistant in the parish, but now he could not be prevailed on to enter the pulpit even once. He always made the same reply: he felt no call. This was so bitter a disappointment to the father that it added many years to his age. He had started late in life, was already an old man, and had labored hard, always with this goal in view. The son now
