"Seth, boy, darling, Walter, am I going mad, or is it true? _Is it Seth?_ Is it my boy? Tell me, Walter," and releasing their grasp, the shaking hands were stretched supplicatingly toward Walter, who answered: "Yes, grandpa. _It’s Seth._ I found him, and I have brought him home." "Oh, Seth, Seth," and the hoary head bowed itself upon the neck of the stranger, while the poor old man sobbed like a little child. "I didn’t expect it, Seth, though I’ve prayed for it so hard. Bless you, bless you, boy, I didn’t mean to go against you. I would have died at any time to know that you were innocent. Forgive me, Seth, because I am so old and weak." "I do forgive you," answered Seth. "It’s all forgotten now, and I’ve come home to stay with you always till you die." There was a hand laid lightly on Seth’s shoulder, and turning, he looked into the face of Mr. Graham, which quivered with emotion, as he said: "I, too, have need of your forgiveness." "None, Richard, none," and locked in each other’s arms, the friends long parted cancelled the olden debt, and in the heart of neither was there a feeling save that of perfect love. Long and passionately Mrs. Howland wept over her brother, for his return brought back the past, and all that she had suffered since the night he went away. Aunt Debby, too, was much affected, but did not omit her accustomed "He allus was a good boy." Then Mrs. Bellenger approached, and offering her hand, said to him very kindly: "You are dear to me for Ellen’s sake, and though I never saw you until to-day, my heart claims you for a child. Shall I be your mother, Mr. Marshall?" He could only reply by pressing the hand she extended, for his heart was all too full for utterance. "Let me go away alone," he said at last, "to weep out my great joy," and opening the door of what was once his room, he passed for a time from their midst. The surprise had apparently disturbed the deacon’s reason, for even after his son had left him he continued talking just the same: "Poor Seth,—poor child, to think your hair should be so gray, and you but a little boy." Then, when Seth returned to them he made him sit down beside him, and holding both his hands, smiled up into his face a smile far more painful than tears would have been. "Seth’s come home. Did you know it?" he would say to those around him, as if it were to them a piece of news, and often as he said it, he would smoothe the gray hair which seemed to trouble him so much. Gradually, however, his mind became clearer, and he was able to understand all that Seth was telling them of his experience since the night he went away. At last, just as the sun was setting, Mr. Marshall arose, and without a word, passed into the open air. No one watched him to see whither he went, for all knew that before he returned to them he would go down the lane, along the beaten path, to where the moonlight fell upon a little grave.