goods?'

'I don't know,' said Miss Frere, looking at him.

'What were they to do with these goods?'

'Trade with them, it seems.'

'In Luke the command runs so: "Trade till I come." Trading is a process
by which the goods or the money concerned are multiplied. What are the
goods given to you and me?--to bring the question down into the
practical. It must be something with which we may increase the wealth
of Him who has entrusted it to us.'

'Pitt, that is a very strange way of speaking,' said his mother.

'I am talking to Miss Frere, mamma. You have only to hear and judge
between us. Miss Frere, the question comes to you.'

'I should say it is not possible to increase "His wealth."'

'That is not _my_ putting of the case, remember. And also, every
enlargement of His dominion in this world, every addition made to the
number of His subjects, may be fairly spoken of so. The question
stands, What are the goods? That is, if you like to go into it. I am
not catechizing you,' said Pitt, half laughing.

'I do not dislike to be catechized,' said Miss Frere slowly. _By you_,
was the mental addition. 'But I never had such a question put to me
before, and I am not ready with an answer.'

'I never heard the question discussed either,' said Pitt. 'But I was
reading this passage yesterday, and could not help starting it. The
"goods" must be, I think, all those gifts or powers by means of which
we can work for God, and so work as to enlarge His kingdom. Now, what
are they?'

'Of course we can pay money,' said the young lady, looking a good deal
mystified. 'We can pay money to support ministers, if that is what you
mean.'

'So much is patent enough. Is money the only thing?'

Miss Frere looked bewildered, Mrs. Dallas impatient. She restrained
herself, however, and waited. Pitt smiled.

'We pay money to support ministers and teachers. What do the ministers
work with? what do they _trade_ with?'

'The truth, I suppose.'

'And how do they make the truth known? By their lips, and by their
lives; the power of the word, with the power of personal influence.'

'Yes,' said Miss Frere; 'of course.'

'Then the goods, or talents, so far as they are commonly possessed, and
so far as we have discovered, are three: property, speech, and personal
example. But the two last are entrusted to you and me, are they not, as
well as the former?'

The girl looked at him now with big eyes, in which no shadow of
self-consciousness was a