A Father's Love Trampled Under Foot.

I once heard of a father who had a prodigal boy, and the boy had sent his mother down to the grave with a broken heart, and one evening the boy started out as usual to spend the night in drinking and gambling, and his old father, as he was leaving, said: |My son, I want to ask a favor of you to-night. You have not spent an evening with me since your mother died. Now won't you gratify your old father by staying at home with him?| |No,| said the young man, |it is lonely here, and there is nothing to interest me, and I am going out.| And the old man prayed and wept, and at last said: |My boy, you are just killing me as you have killed your mother. These hairs are growing white, and you are sending me, too, to the grave.| Still the boy would not stay, and the old man said: |If you are determined to go to ruin, you must go over this old body to-night. I can not resist you. You are stronger than I, but if you go out you must go over this body.| And he laid himself down before the door, and that son walked over the form of his father, trampled the love of his father under foot, and went out.