MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

would bring such joy."'If it should prove,' he mused, 'that the people of this parish are unable to endure wealth,since already four have died who had been strong practical men, ought I not to give upthe idea of working the mine?' He pictured his whole parish going to destruction becauseof the silver. Would it be right that he, who was placed as a guardian over the souls ofthese poor people, should put into their hands something which might be the cause oftheir ruin?"The King raised himself upright in his chair and stared at the speaker. "I might say thatyou give me to understand that the pastor of this isolated community must be a real man.""But this that I have related was not all," continued the minister, "for as soon as the newsof the mine spread over the neighboring parishes, workers ceased to labor and went aboutlight-heartedly, awaiting the time when the great riches should pour in on them. All idlersin that section roamed into the hamlet. Drunkenness, quarreling, and fighting becameconstant problems for the minister's solution. Many people did nothing but wanderaround through fields and forest looking for the mine. The minister noted, also, that assoon as he left home, men spied upon him to see whether he visited the silver mine, sothat they might steal the secret of its location from him."When things had come to this pass, the minister called the farmers to a meeting. He