A slow train across Wales

A gloomy lugubrious looking minister was travelling on a slow train across Wales with only one other passenger in the compartment. Suddenly he turned to his fellow traveller and demanded

"Have you ever reflected that at any moment we may be launched into eternity?"

"Yes", said the stranger, "many times."

"And do you ever meditate on the great uncertainty of life?" "Yes, indeed, I think of this many times a day", replied the other.

"Indeed!" said the preacher, "can it be that I am talking to a fellow minister?"

"No," said the stranger, firmly, "you are not. I am a travelling agent for the London and Cardiff Life Assurance association. As it happens I have here a prospectus setting out the tables of mortality for clergymen and giving details of our special terms for ministers. And now, good-day to you sir, I must get off at the next station."