THE CALL OF A DISTANT PAST 285 



My old Latin school reader contained a lot of 

 Aesop's fables, the concluding paragraph of each 

 narration beginning with the expression, "hie fabula 

 docet." And so, with this little leaf from the book 

 of my own experience, the moral is plain: sooner or 

 later opportunity comes to us all suddenly perhaps, 

 or quite by chance, and usually with no time to 

 prepare one's self to meet the test. And when the 

 hour arrives, then truly what has up to that mo- 

 ment seemed a dull and aimless round of drudgery 

 becomes the solid bridge upon which one has the 

 chance to cross at once to better things. Despise 

 not, therefore, the days of dry detail, the hours of 

 unconscious preparation. The responsible heads will 

 surely be away sometime when something happens, 

 and then you get your day in court. 



