ed with your profession?'

'Not always; I have been lately reading Armenian--'

'What's that?'

'The language of a people whose country is a region on the other side of
Asia Minor.'

'Well!'

'A region abounding with mountains.'

'Well!'

'Amongst which is Mount Ararat.'

'Well!'

'Upon which, as the Bible informs us, the ark rested.'

'Well!'

'It is the language of the people of those regions.'

'So you told me.'

'And I have been reading the Bible in their language.'

'Well!'

'Or rather, I should say, in the ancient language of these people; from
which I am told the modern Armenian differs considerably.'

'Well!'

'As much as the Italian from the Latin.'

'Well!'

'So I have been reading the Bible in ancient Armenian.'

'You told me so before.'

'I found it a highly difficult language.'

'Yes.'

'Differing widely from the languages in general with which I am
acquainted.'

'Yes.'

'Exhibiting, however, some features in common with them.'

'Yes.'

'And sometimes agreeing remarkably in words with a certain strange wild
speech with which I became acquainted--'

'Irish?'

'No, father, not Irish--with which I became acquainted by the greatest
chance in the world.'

'Yes.'

'But of which I need say nothing farther at present, and which I should
not have mentioned but for that fact.'

'Well!'

'Which I consider remarkable.'

'Yes.'

'The Armenian is copious.'

'Is it?'

'With an alphabet of thirty-nine letters, but it is harsh and guttural.'

'Yes.'

'Like the language of most mountainous people--the Armenians call it
Haik.'

'Do they?'

'And themselves, Haik, also; they are a remarkable people, and, though
their original habitation is the Mountain of Ararat, they are to be
found, like the Jews, all over the world.'

'Well!'

'Well, father, that's all I can tell you about the Haiks, or Armenians.'

'And what does it all amount to?'

'Very little, father; indeed, there is very little known about the
Armenians; their early history, in particular, is involved in
considerable mystery.'

'And, if you knew all that it was possible to know about them, to what
would it amount? to what earthly purpose could you turn it? have you
acquired any knowledge of your profession?'

'Very little, father.'

'Very little! Have you acquired all in your power?'

'I can't say that I have, father.'

'And yet it was your duty to have done so. But I see how it is, you have