ch," continued Paul, after the first demands
of appetite had been appeased, "that my dear mother was a true Christian
from her youth. Her father was converted to Christ by one of that noble
band of missionaries who were trained by the great Wycliffe, and whom he
sent throughout England to preach the Gospel to the poor, carrying in
their hands manuscript portions of that Gospel, translated by Wycliffe
into plain English. You see, that curious invention of the German, John
Gutenberg--I mean printing by movable types--was not known at that time,
and even now, although half a century has passed since the Bible was
printed abroad in Latin, no one with means and the power to do it has
yet arisen to print an English Bible, but the day is not far distant
when that work shall be done, I venture to prophesy, though I make no
pretence to be among the prophets!

"Well, as I was going to say, the missionary was a hoary old man when he
preached the sermon that turned my grandfather from darkness to light.
My grandfather was just fifteen years old at that time. Ten years later
the same missionary came to grandfather's house, worn out with years and
labours, and died there, leaving all his treasure to his host. That
treasure was a small portion of the New Testament in English, copied
from Wycliffe's own translation. You may be sure that my grandfather
valued the legacy very highly. When he died he left it to my mother.
About that time my mother married and went to live on the banks of the
Severn. Not far from our farm there dwelt a family of the name of
Hutchins. The father had changed his name and taken refuge there during
the recent civil wars. This family possessed a Latin Bible, and the
head of it was well acquainted with its contents. It was through him
that my mother became well acquainted with the Old as well as the New
Testament, and thus it was that I also came in course of time to know
about Methuselah, and a good many more characters about whom I may
perhaps tell you one of these days."

"So, then, this is the manuscript the old missionary carried about, is
it?" said Trench, fingering the fragment tenderly.

"Ay, and a good translation it is, I have been told by one whom most
people would think too young to be a judge. You must know that this Mr
Hutchins has a son named William, who is considerably younger than I am,
but he is such a clever, precocious fellow, that before he left home for
college I used to find