g in his veranda reading before breakfast,
a lad came quickly up the stairs and into the veranda, and knelt down
before him. It was the servant. As soon as he was released from gaol, he
went straight to his old master, straight to the veranda where he was
sure he would be sitting at that hour, and begged to be taken back again
into his service. He was quite pleased, and sure that his master would
be equally pleased, at seeing him again, and he took it almost as a
matter of course that he would be reinstated.

But the master doubted.

'How can I take you back again?' he said. 'You have been in gaol.'

'But,' said the boy, 'I did very well in gaol. I became a warder with a
cap white on one side and yellow on the other. Let the thakin ask.'

Still the officer doubted.

'I cannot take you back,' he repeated. 'You stole my money, and you have
been in prison. I could not have you as a servant again.'

'Yes,' admitted the boy, 'I stole the thakin's money, but I have been in
prison for it a long time--six months. Surely that is all forgotten now.
I stole; I have been in gaol--that is the end of it.'

'No,' answered the master, 'unfortunately, your having been in gaol
only makes matters much worse. I could forgive the theft, but the being
in gaol--how can I forgive that?'

And the boy could not understand.

'If I have stolen, I have been in gaol for it. That is wiped out now,'
he said again and again, till at last he went away in sore trouble of
mind, for he could not understand his master, nor could his master
understand him.

You see, each had his own idea of what was law, and what was justice,
and what was punishment. To the Burman all these words had one set of
meanings; to the Englishman they had another, a very different one. And
each of them took his ideas from his religion. To all men the law here
on earth is but a reflection of the heavenly law; the judge is the
representative of his god. The justice of the court should be as the
justice of heaven. Many nations have imagined their law to be
heaven-given, to be inspired with the very breath of the Creator of the
world. Other nations have derived their laws elsewhere. But this is of
little account, for to the one, as to the other, the laws are a
reflection of the religion.

And therefore on a man's religion depends all his views of law and
justice, his understanding of the word 'punishment,' his idea of how sin
should be treated. And it was because of their d