er. So the physician said in his prospectus; and
so said all the citizens in the city; and there was nothing more urgent
in men's hearts than to be properly painted themselves, and nothing they
took more delight in than to see others painted. There was in the same
city a young man of a very good family but of a somewhat reckless life,
who had reached the age of manhood, and would have nothing to say to the
paint: "To-morrow was soon enough," said he; and when the morrow came he
would still put it off. So he might have continued to do until his
death; only, he had a friend of about his own age and much of his own
manners; and this youth, taking a walk in the public street, with not
one fleck of paint upon his body, was suddenly run down by a water-cart
and cut off in the heyday of his nakedness. This shook the other to the
soul; so that I never beheld a man more earnest to be painted; and on
the very same evening, in the presence of all his family, to appropriate
music, and himself weeping aloud, he received three complete coats and a
touch of varnish on the top. The physician (who was himself affected
even to tears) protested he had never done a job so thorough.

Some two months afterwards, the young man was carried on a stretcher to
the physician's house.

"What is the meaning of this?" he cried, as soon as the door was opened.
"I was to be set free from all the dangers of life; and here have I been
run down by that self-same water-cart, and my leg is broken."

"Dear me!" said the physician. "This is very sad. But I perceive I must
explain to you the action of my paint. A broken bone is a mighty small
affair at the worst of it; and it belongs to a class of accident to
which my paint is quite inapplicable. Sin, my dear young friend, sin is
the sole calamity that a wise man should apprehend; it is against sin
that I have fitted you out; and when you come to be tempted you will
give me news of my paint."

"O!" said the young man, "I did not understand that, and it seems rather
disappointing. But I have no doubt all is for the best; and in the
meanwhile, I shall be obliged to you if you will set my leg."

"That is none of my business," said the physician; "but if your bearers
will carry you round the corner to the surgeon's, I feel sure he will
afford relief."

Some three years later, the young man came running to the physician's
house in a great perturbation. "What is the meaning of this?" he cried.
"Here was I to b