The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

[6] The mice were duly fed during their detention, and were eventually sent for by the applicant. A young man, conceiving that he had a call to the ministry, quitted the Post-office service to qualify for that vocation. After a time, the following letter, which fully explains its own purpose, reached headquarters:-- "Enclosed is from a young man in my parish, whose sister is a permanent invalid, and his father a retired Church officer, so that he must have a dry crust. "I suppose his style does not take amongst the Independent congregations wanting pastors, so he is sent back to business (a great mistake, I told him, he ever left it). "He says something about being over twenty-four years of age; but I think it hard he should go to college for three years, and then be sent adrift without a plank. Is it possible to reinstate him at the Post-office? He goes to chapel in my parish, and his family are all deserving and needy. Excuse this effort to help a respectable though needy fellow."