After a restless and anxious night he rose early; and, after commending himself and his cause to God in earnest prayer, set off, after a hasty breakfast, in the direction given him as leading to the place of appointment.  It was a glorious summer day; and as he rode briskly along the country road, out of which he soon turned into a long lane skirted on either side by noble trees, he could not help sighing to think how man's sin had brought discord and deformity into a world which might otherwise have been so full of beauty.  The wood soon appeared in sight, and a lonely as well as lovely spot it was.  Many bridle-roads intersected it; he chose one which seemed to lead into the centre, and in a short time the great oak was visible.  There was no mistaking the venerable forest giant, with its rugged fantastic limbs towering high above the neighbouring trees.  So he made straight for it at once.  Amos was no coward, though naturally of a timid disposition; for he had patiently acquired habits of self-control, learned partly in the school of chastisement, and partly in the school of self-discipline.  And yet it was not without a feeling of shrinking and misgiving that he saw a man approaching the oak from a path opposite to that by which he himself had come.  Trees, mingled with thick brushwood, covered the ground on all sides, except where the roads and bridle-paths ran, and not a creature had he met before since he turned out of the main road.  Little time, however, was allowed him for further reflection; in a minute more he was joined by the other traveller.  A single glance was sufficient to satisfy him that he had before him the same man who had attracted his attention the evening before at the Wheatsheaf.