Amos made no answer, nor did Miss Huntingdon; but as Walter looked towards her, with no very happy expression of countenance, she quietly laid one hand across the other. He saw it and coloured, and then, with a disdainful toss of the head, hurried away. But the arrow had hit its mark. As Miss Huntingdon was about to prepare for bed, she heard a low voice outside her door saying, "May a naughty boy come in?" and Walter was admitted. The tears were in his eyes as he kissed his aunt and sat down. "I am waiting for the rod," he said, half mournfully and half playfully. "I deserve it, I know. I was wrong. I was unkind to Amos. I behaved like a cowardly sneak. Now, dear auntie, for a moral hero that isn't like me." "Dear boy," said his aunt, placing her hands lovingly on his head, "you were wrong, I know; but you are right now, and I think you mean to keep so. I have a beautiful instance here of moral courage, just to the point; I was reading about it a few minutes ago. "A young man once called on a most earnest and experienced minister of the gospel, Dr Spencer of Brooklyn, New York, about his difficulties in his earthly calling. He was salesman in a dry-goods store, and was required by his employer to do things which he felt not to be right. For instance, he must learn to judge by the appearance of any woman who entered the store, by her dress, her manner, her look, the tone of her voice, whether she had much knowledge of the article she wished to purchase; and if she had not, he must put the price higher, as high as he thought she could be induced to pay. With one class of customers he must _always_ begin by asking a half or a third more than the regular price; and if any objection was made, he was to say, `We have never sold it any cheaper,' or, `You cannot buy that quality of goods any lower in the city.' In fact, a very large portion of the service expected of him was just to lie for the purpose of cheating. When he expressed his doubts about this being right, his employer laughed at him. `Everybody does it,' he said; `You can't be a merchant without it. All is fair in trade. You are too green.'--`I know I am too green,' the young man said to the minister sorrowfully; `for I was brought up in the country, and don't know much of the world. My mother is a poor widow, but I don't believe _she_ would think it right for me to do such things.'--`And do _you_ think it right?' asked the minister.--`No; but my employer is a church member, and yet I believe it would make my old mother very bad if she knew I was doing such things every day.'--`Well, then,' said the good pastor, `take your mother's way, and refuse his.'--`I shall lose my place then.'--`Well, lose your place; don't hesitate a moment; tell your employer you will do all that you honestly can, but that you were not engaged to deceive, to cheat, to lie.'--`If I should say that, he would tell me to be off.'--`Very well; _be_ off, then.'--`I have no other