The girl, too, had disappeared, and was never seen again.
In accordance with the god's decree, no statue was erected, no poem was
composed, and no entry was made in the city records. But tradition did
not forget that the saviour of the city was he who survived in the great
image on which the name of the god was inscribed.
THE AGED TREE
An aged tree, whose companions had gone, having still a little sap in
its bark and a few leaves which grew therefrom, prayed it might see yet
another spring. Its prayer was granted: and spring came, but the old
tree had no leaves save one or two near the ground, and a great fungus
fixed itself on its trunk. It had a dull life in its roots, but not
enough to know that its moss and fungus were not foliage. It stood
there, an unlovely mass of decay, when the young trees were all
bursting. "That rotten thing," said the master, "ought to have been cut
down long ago."
CONSCIENCE
"Conscience," said I, "her conscience would have told her."
"Yes," said my father. "The strongest amongst the many objections to
the Roman Catholic doctrine of confession is that it weakens our
dependence on the conscience.
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