Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/313

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A TALE OF THE FUTURE.
309

one must respect, that one must admire, that one must love. The sight of his sorrow caused me to cast my dejection aside. I tried to look cheerful to cheer him; I tried to look happy to make him happy.

An elder came up to me and said: "Young man, have you any further reasons to bring forward as to why your sentence should not be carried out? You have been tried before our judges, and they have found you guilty according to the laws of our people."

I replied: "Sir, I feel that I am according to yours laws found guilty of a great crime, and I feel, looking at my sentence from your point of view, that it is a just one. I blame no one in this country for what has taken place, nor can I blame myself. What I have done, has been done in ignorance; and I feel that while it is a transgression in the eyes of your laws, it is not a sin in the eyes of the great Creator, to whom all owe their being."

"Now," he said, "your sentence must be carried out; are you prepared?"