I remember hearing mamma read a bit of one of the letters of
condolence which said 'His was one of the most beautiful lives I have
ever known,' and I never forgot it. It stayed in my mind like a
riddle, till I gradually found out that the beauty was in the good he
was always doing—-"
"Ah!" said the Colonel, in a tone betokening that he was touched, and
which encouraged John to continue,—-
"Besides, I really do like and enter into scientific subjects better
than any others; I believe it is my turn."
"Perhaps-—you do sometimes put me in mind of your uncle. But why
have you only spoken of it now?"
"I don't think I really considered what I should be," said John.
"There was quite enough to think of with work, and cricket, and all
the rest, till this spring, when I have been off it all, and then
when I talked it over with Dr. Medlicott, he settled my mind about
various things that I wanted to know."
"Did he persuade you?"
"No more than saying that I managed well for Jock when I was left
alone with him, and that he thought I had the makings of a doctor in
me. He loves his profession of course, and thinks it a grand one.
Yes, papa, indeed I think it is. To be always learning the ways of
God's working, for the sake of lessening all the pain and grief in
the world-—"
"Johnny! That's almost what my brother said to me thirty years ago,
and what did it come to? Being at the beck and call night and day of
every beggar in London, and dying at last in his prime, of disease
caught in their service.
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