And what those mercies were it is not for me to say, for our ears are tender for such subjects; our eyes just glance at them in the daily papers, and we forget that the newspapers are describing facts. Tim remembered, for instance--it was but one remembrance--that when one of his little cousins wished to punish him, she thrust a spoon between the bars of the grate before forcing his baby-fingers to close upon it. Ragged, half-starved, alive only on sufferance, he had, however, the advantage of school, because the blessed provision of the Government does not now allow children to be uneducated. At first, indeed, his progress was not extraordinary, for starvation and learning do not walk hand in hand; and his father, uncle, and aunt began to realise that this want of progress would prolong the days of school. Impatient at this they applied the spur of beating, but this produced illness, and delayed his progress more; so that, moved by interested motives, they finally condescended to pay some amount of attention to his health. This kind consideration produced a due result, Tim proved intelligent, and passed his Standards well; and was eventually able to leave the Board School when he was not very much more than twelve years old. His father removed him as soon as possible, and hastened at once to put him out to work. And now let us for a moment, think of Tim, a little, lean, bright-eyed creature, twelve years old, ill-clothed, ill-fed, not very much educated, treated always with harshness from his cradle. From that wretched household what else could be expected but the sort of beings that such brutality rears; such creatures--one scarcely dares to call them men--as we may find in our back streets if we go there to look. In this life, however, we often have to deal with that strange element we call the Improbable; and it is this want of absolute knowledge of the factors in our sums which makes us unable to calculate results with certainty. From out of that wretched, drunken, brutal home an irresistible force rose in the boy; there awoke in Tim, and grew in him with his years, the tendency that ‘makes for righteousness.’