at you did wrong."

"If ever I find a human being who does not only do right, but more than
is right, I will believe that I did wrong! But I don't believe that
there is such a being."

"To do more than that which is right is to have compassion. May it
please God that you will soon come to know it!"

One day the stone man was sent to repair the road on the cliff, which he
had not seen for, perhaps, twenty years.

It was again a warm summer's day, and from the passing steamers, bright
and beautiful as butterflies, came the sounds of music and gay laughter.

When he arrived at the headland he found that the cliff had disappeared
under a lovely green wood, whose millions of leaves glittered and
sparkled in the breeze like small waves. There were tall, white birch
trees and trembling aspens, and ash trees grew on the shore.

Everything was just as it had been in his dream. At the foot of the
trees tall grasses nodded, butterflies played in the sunshine, and
humble-bees buzzed from flower to flower. The birds were singing, but he
could not understand what they said, and therefore he knew that it was
not a dream.

The cursed mountain had been transformed into a mountain of bliss, and
he could not help thinking of the prophet and the gourd.

"This is mercy and compassion," whispered a voice in his heart, or
perhaps it was a warning.

And when a steamer passed, the faces of the passengers did not grow
gloomy, but brightened at the sight of the beautiful scenery; he even
fancied that he saw some one wave a handkerchief, as people on a steamer
do when they pass a summer resort.

He walked along a path beneath waving trees. It is true, there was not
one lime tree; but he did not dare to wish for one, for fear the birches
might turn into rods. He had learnt that much.

As he walked through a leafy avenue, he saw in the distance a white wall
with a green gate. And somebody was playing on an instrument which was
not an organ, for the movement was much jollier and livelier. Above the
wall the pretty roof of a villa was visible, and a yellow and blue flag
fluttered in the wind.

And he saw a gaily coloured ball rise and fall on the other side of the
wall; he heard the chattering of children's voices, and the clinking of
plates and glasses told him that a table was being laid.

He went and looked through the gate. The syringa was in full flower, and
the table stood under the flowering shrubs; children were running about,