The tears were welling into Samuel's eyes. “I can't see how I did it, sir,” he whispered. “I have been blind--I have been lost. I am a strayed sheep!” And then suddenly his emotion overcame him, and he burst into a paroxysm of weeping. “I can't believe it of myself!” he exclaimed again and again. “I have been out of my senses!” The doctor watched him for a few moments. “Perhaps it was not altogether your fault,” he said more gently. “You have been led astray--” “No, no!” cried the boy. “I am bad. I see it--it must be! I could never have been persuaded, if I had not been bad! It began at the very beginning. I yielded to the first temptation when I stole a ride upon the train. And everything else came from that--it has been one long chain!” “Let us be glad that it is no longer,” said Dr. Vince--“and that you have come to the end of it.” “Ah, but have I?” cried the boy wildly. “Why not? Surely you will no longer be led by such false teaching!” “No, sir. But see what I have done! Why I am liable to be sent to jail--for I don't know how long.” “You mean for last night?” asked the doctor. “But no one will ever know about that. You may start again and live a true life.” “Ah,” cried Samuel, “but the memory of it will haunt me--I can never forgive myself!” “We are very fortunate,” said the other gravely, “if we have only a few things in our lives that we cannot forget, and that we cannot forgive ourselves.” The worthy doctor had been anticipating a long struggle to bring the young criminal to see the error of his ways; but instead, he found that he had to use his skill in casuistry to convince the boy that he was not hopelessly sullied. And when at last Samuel had been persuaded that he might take up his life again, there was nothing that would satisfy him save to go back where he had been before, and take up that struggle with starvation. “I must prove that I can conquer,” he said--“I yielded to the temptation once, and now I must face it.” “But, Samuel,” protested the doctor, “it is no man's duty to starve. You must let me help you, and find some useful work for you, and some people who will be your friends.” “Don't think I am ungrateful,” cried the boy--“but why should I be favored? There are so many others starving, right here in this town. And if I am going to love them and serve them, why should I have more than they have? Wouldn't that be selfish of me? Why, sir, I'd be making profit out of my repentance!” “I don't quite see that,” said the other-- “Why, sir! Isn't it just because I've been so sorry that you are willing to help me? There are so many others who have not been helped--some I know, sir, that need it far more than I do, and have deserved it more, too!”