"Kindly excuse me for troubling you with this matter; but I do not wish to defer it until our return, lest I lose sight of the boy. The dismal attic where Christie and his old master lived was the last place my dear wife visited before her illness; and I feel that the charge of this boy is a sacred duty which I must perform for her dear sake, and also for the sake of Him who has said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' "Believe me, dear Mr. Wilton, "Yours very sincerely, "GERALD LINDESAY." "Christie," said the clergyman, "the dear Lord has been very good to you." "Yes," said little Christie, "old Treffy was right; wasn't he, sir?" "What did old Treffy say?" asked the clergyman. "He said the Lord had some work for me to do for Him," said Christie, "and I didn't think there was any thing I could do; but He's going to let me, after all." "Yes," said the clergyman, smiling; "shall we thank Him, Christie?" So he knelt down by Christie's bed, and little Christie clasped his thin hands and added his words of praise:-- "O Jesus, I thank Thee so much for letting me have some work to do for Thee; and, please, I will stay outside the gates a little longer, to do something to show Thee how I love Thee. Amen." "Yes, Christie," said the clergyman, as he rose to go, "you must work with a very loving heart. And when the work is over will come the _rest_. After the long waiting will come 'Home, sweet Home.'" "Yes," said Christie, brightly, "'there's no place like Home, no place like Home.'" CHAPTER XIII. CHRISTIE'S WORK FOR THE MASTER. It was a hot summer's afternoon, some years after, and the air in Ivy Court was as close and stifling as it had been in the days when Christie and old Treffy lived there. Crowds of children might still be seen playing there, screaming and quarrelling, just as they had done then. The air was as full of smoke and dust, and the court looked as desolate as it had done in those years gone by. It was still a very dismal and a very forlorn place.