But his love of literature and of science was even stronger than his love of preaching the gospel; and, after a very few years, he accepted a position as professor in a small college, in a town only four miles distant from the village in which Mercy had come to live.

This was twenty-five years ago.

Parson Dorrance was now fifty-five years old.

For a quarter of a century, his name had been the pride, and his hand had been the stay, of the college.

It had had presidents of renown and professors of brilliant attainments; but Parson Dorrance held a position more enviable than all.