The king followed this advice.  He sent workmen and materials to the desolate island, and before the close of his temporary power it had become a blooming, pleasant, and attractive spot.  The rulers who had preceded him had anticipated the day of their power’s close with dread, or smothered all thought of it in revelry; but he looked forward to it as a day of joy, when he should enter upon a career of permanent peace and happiness.

The day came; the freed slave, who had been made king, was deprived of his authority; with his power he lost his royal garments; naked he was placed upon a ship, and its sails set for the desolate isle.

When he approached its shores, however, the people whom he had sent there came to meet him with music, song, and great joy.  They made him a prince among them, and he lived with them ever after in pleasantness and peace.

The wealthy man of kindly disposition is God, and the slave to whom He gave freedom is the soul which He gives to man.  The island at which the slave arrives is the world; naked and weeping he appears to his parents, who are inhabitants that greet him warmly and make him their king.  The friends who tell him of the ways of the country are his “good inclinations.”  The year of his reign is his span of life, and the desolate island is the future world, which he must beautify by good deeds, “the workmen and material,” or else live lonely and desolate forever.

* * * * *

The Emperor Adrian, passing through the streets of Tiberias, noticed a very old man planting a fig tree, and pausing, said to him:—­

“Wherefore plant that tree?  If thou didst labor in thy youth, thou shouldst now have a store for thy old age, and surely of the fruit of this tree thou canst not hope to eat.”

The old man answered:—­

“In my youth I worked, and I still work.  With God’s good pleasure I may e’en partake of the fruit of this tree I plant.  I am in His hands.”

“Tell me thy age,” said the emperor.

“I have lived for a hundred years.”

“A hundred years old, and still expect to eat from the fruit of this tree?”

“If such be God’s pleasure,” replied the old man; “if not, I will leave it for my son, as my father left the fruit of his labor for me.”

“Well,” said the emperor, “if thou dost live until the figs from this tree are ripe, I pray thee let me know of it.”

The aged man lived to partake of that very fruit, and remembering the emperor’s words, he resolved to visit him.  So, taking a small basket, he filled it with the choicest figs from the tree, and proceeded on his errand.  Telling the palace guard his purpose, he was admitted to the sovereign’s presence.

“Well,” asked the emperor, “what is thy wish?”

The old man replied:—­

“Lo, I am the old man to whom thou didst say, on the day thou sawest him planting a fig tree, ’If thou livest to eat of its fruit, I pray thee let me know;’ and behold I have come and brought thee of the fruit, that thou mayest partake of it likewise.”