Surely, he would.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

At the coming of winter, Uncle Zed was bedfast.  He was failing rapidly.  Neighbors helped him.  Dorian remained with him as much as he could.  The bond which had existed between these two grew stronger as the time of separation became nearer.  The dying man was clear-minded, and he suffered very little pain.  He seemed completely happy if he could have Dorian sitting by him and they could talk together.  And these were wonderful days to the young man, days never to be forgotten.

Outside, the air was cold with gusts of wind and lowering clouds.  Inside, the room was cosy and warm.  A few of the old man’s hardiest flowers were still in pots on the table where the failing eyes could see them.  That evening Mrs. Trent had tidied up the room and had left Dorian to spend the night with the sick man.  The tea-kettle hummed softly on the stove.  The shaded lamp was turned down low.

“Dorian.”

“Yes, Uncle Zed.”

“Turn up the lamp a little.  It’s too dark in here.”

“Doesn’t the light hurt your eyes!”

“No; besides I want you to get me some papers out of that drawer in my desk.”

Dorian fetched a large bundle of clippings and papers and asked if they were what he wanted.

“Not all of them just now; but take from the pile the few on top.  I want you to read them to me.  They are a few selections which I have culled and which have a bearing on the things we have lately been talking about.”

The first note which Dorian read was as follows. “’The keys of the holy priesthood unlock the door of knowledge to let you look into the palace of truth’.”

“That’s by Brigham Young.  You did not know that he was a poet as well as a prophet,” commented the old man.  “The next one is from him also.”

“’There never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through.  That course has been from all eternity and it is and will be to all eternity’.”

“Now you know, Dorian, where I get my inspiration from.  Read the next, also from President Young.”

“’The idea that the religion of Christ is one thing, and science is another, is a mistaken idea, for there is no true science without religion.  The fountain of knowledge dwells with God, and He dispenses it to His children as He pleases, and as they are prepared to receive it; consequently, it swallows up and circumscribes all’.”

“Take these, Dorian; have them with you as inspirational mottoes for your life’s work.  Go on, there are a few more.”

Dorian read again:  “’The region of true religion and the region of a completer science are one.’—­Oliver Lodge.”

“You see one of the foremost scientists of the day agrees with Brigham Young,” said Uncle Zed.  “I think the next one corroborates some of our doctrine also.”