“O friend!  I have heard of your feast; I am late, yet it may be that you have still a little to spare, for I am hungry to my very heart.  The blessing of God be on him who relieves my present sufferings from hunger!” The woodcutter and his wife agreed that it would be much better for them to go to Paradise with half a meal than to leave one fellow creature famishing on earth.  So they shared their own portion with him who had none, and he went away from them rejoicing.  “Now,” said the happy pair, “we shall eat of our half-share with unmixed delight, and with thankful hearts.  By to-morrow evening we shall be transferred to Paradise.”

They had scarcely raised the savoury food to their mouths when a bewailing voice arrested their attention, and stayed the hands already charged with food.  A poor creature who had not tasted food for two days moaned his piteous tale, in accents which drew tears from the woodcutter and his wife; their eyes met and the sympathy was mutual:  they were more willing to depart for Paradise without the promised benefit of one earthly enjoyment, than suffer the hungry man to die from want of that meal they had before them.  The dish was promptly tendered to the unfortunate one, and the woodcutter and his wife consoled each other with reflecting that, as the time of their departure was now so near at hand, the temporary enjoyment of a meal was not worth one moment’s consideration:  “To-morrow we die; then of what consequence is it to us whether we depart with full or empty stomachs?”

And now their thoughts were set on the place of eternal rest.  They slept, and arose to their morning orisons with hearts reposing humbly on their God, in the fullest expectation that this was their last day on earth.  The prayer was concluded, and the woodcutter was in the act of rolling up his carpet, on which he had prostrated himself with gratitude, reverence, and love to his Creator, when he perceived a fresh heap of silver on the floor.  He could scarcely believe but it was a dream.  “How wonderful art thou, O God!” cried he.  “This is thy bounteous gift, that I may indeed enjoy one day before I quit this earth.”  And Musa, when he came to him, was satisfied with the goodness and the power of God.  But he retired again to the Mount, to inquire of God the cause of the woodcutter’s respite.  The reply which Musa received was as follows:  “That man has faithfully applied the wealth given in answer to his petition.  He is worthy to live out his numbered years on earth who, receiving my bounty, thought not of his own enjoyments whilst his fellow men had wants which he could supply.”  And to the end of the wood-cutter’s long life God’s bounty lessened not in substance; neither did the pious man relax in his charitable duties of sharing with the indigent all that he had, and with the same disregard of his own enjoyments.

PRECOCIOUS SAGACITY OF SOLOMON.