Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed. [Illustration: Nelly suddenly exclaimed, "Who is that stranger-boy coming this way with a bundle hanging by a stick over his shoulder?"] THE ADOPTED SON OR, ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE LORD'S PRAYER. BY A. L. O. E. AUTHOR OF "NED FRANKS," "PICTURES OF ST PAUL," "THE WHITE BEAR'S DEN," ETC. GALL & INGLIS. London: Edinburgh: 25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 20 BERNARD TERRACE. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. OUR FATHER, WHICH ART IN HEAVEN II. HALLOWED BE THY NAME III. THY KINGDOM COME IV. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN V. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD VI. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US VII. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION VIII. DELIVER US FROM EVIL IX. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY X. FOR EVER AND EVER THE ADOPTED SON. CHAPTER I. "Our Father, which art in heaven." "Oh! As I said before, it's all a matter of opinion. I think it a man's duty to attend to his business, and get his children well on in the world," observed Goldie, the fruiterer, as the baker's wife handed to him a bag of captain's biscuits from behind her counter. "We must look to our advantage in this life, Mrs. Winter." "Ay, and in the next also," replied the woman quietly. Then bending over the counter to a little flaxen-haired girl who had just entered the shop, "And what do you want, my dear?" she said. "Please for twopenny-worth of sweet biscuits, three for a penny," answered the child. Mrs. Winter slowly plunged her hand into one of the neat glass jars which, carefully labelled with their various contents, adorned the front of her window. Mrs. Winter was a pattern of neatness, even to precision, her cap was ever of faultless white, her panes were as clean as hands could make them, not a crumb was ever suffered to rest on her counter, and her name over the door shone in bright gilt letters that might have been worthy of a shop in London. Precise and formal as some people deemed her, Mrs. Winter was a kind-hearted woman, too; much warm feeling lay under a stiff, cold manner; combined with a large share of good common sense. She had never been blessed with children, and her husband, though in some respects a worthy, honest man, kept his hands so tightly over his purse strings, as to gain for the couple a character of penuriousness, which was undeserved by his wife. Notwithstanding this, many were the stale loaves which found their way to some poor man's home, and many were the nights which Mrs. Winter had given to watching the sick-bed of a neighbour.