Chapter 8

It was Sunday morning, and Mr. Whitechoker, as was his wont on the first
day of the week, appeared at the breakfast table severe as to his mien.

"Working on Sunday weighs on his mind," the Idiot said to the
Bibliomaniac, "but I don't see why it should. The luxury of rest
that he allows himself the other six days of the week is surely an
atonement for the hours of labor he puts in on Sunday."

But it was not this that on Sunday mornings weighed on the mind of the
Reverend Mr. Whitechoker. He appeared more serious of visage then because
he had begun to think of late that his fellow-boarders lived too much in
the present, and ignored almost totally that which might be expected to
come. He had been revolving in his mind for several weeks the question as
to whether it was or was not his Christian duty to attempt to influence
the lives of these men with whom the chances of life had brought him in
contact. He had finally settled it to his own satisfaction that it was
his duty so to do, and he had resolved, as far as lay in his power, to
direct the conversation at Sunday morning's breakfast into spiritual
rather than into temporal matters.

So, as Mrs. Pedagog was pouring the coffee, Mr. Whitechoker began:

"Do you gentlemen ever pause in your every-day labors and thought to let
your minds rest upon the future--the possibilities it has in store for
us, the consequences which--"

"No mush, thank you," said the Idiot. Then turning to Mr. Whitechoker, he
added: "I can't answer for the other gentlemen at this board, but I can
assure you, Mr. Whitechoker, that I often do so. It was only last night,
sir, that my genial friend who imbibes and I were discussing the future
and its possibilities, and I venture to assert that there is no more
profitable food for reflection anywhere in the larders of the mind than
that."

"Larders of the mind is excellent," said the School-Master, with a touch
of sarcasm in his voice. "Perhaps you would not mind opening the door to
your mental pantry, and letting us peep within at the stores you keep
there. I am sure that on the subject in hand your views cannot fail to be
original as well as edifying."

"I am also sure," said Mr. Whitechoker, somewhat surprised to hear the
Idiot speak as he did, having sometimes ventured to doubt if that
flippant-minded young man ever reflected on the serious side of life--"I
am also sure that it is most gratifying to hear that you have done some
thinking on the subject."

"I am glad you are gratified, Mr. Whitechoker," replied the Idiot, "but
I am far from taking undue credit to myself because I reflect upon the
future and