"With a heart beating faster than usual, my father was led by the boy to a neighbouring house, as low and dirty as the one which they had just quitted. They ascended to a room upon the second floor, where a woman sat alone, engaged in reading. At the first glance my father recognised the book which she held in her hand. It is that, Walter, which you now see in the possession of his son." "The exclamation which he uttered startled the woman; she turned round hastily with an expression of fear on her face—the book dropped from her hand as, gazing wildly on my father, she exclaimed, 'It is he! Oh what strange fortune has brought him here!'" "'Not fortune,' said my father with emotion, as he raised the little book, 'but, as I believe, a gracious Providence, who will surely bring both guilt and innocence to light.'" "'I knew it—I knew it!' cried the woman, clasping her hands. 'Since the night when I robbed you I have had no peace; that book has been like a sword in my conscience—I would have restored what I had taken, had I known where to find its owner, and see—see my own child has led him to my door!' Hastening to a corner of her room, with trembling hands she opened a deal box, and frees the very bottom of it, under heaps of rags and rubbish, she drew forth my father's lost pocket-book!" "Think, only think, how much delighted he must have been to see it!" cried Nelly. "He could scarcely believe that he was not in a dream when the wretched woman placed it in his hand; and when on opening it he saw the two bank-notes, a feeling of overpowering, thankfulness filled his soul, and made him unable to speak." "'Take it—it is just as when you lost it—I dared not change the notes,' said the woman; 'and oh I have mercy on a wretched creature; do not give me up to the police! It was my first theft; indeed, indeed it was, and I will never be guilty of one again!'" "Did your father give her up to punishment?" inquired Walter, with interest. "No; he was full of compassion for the unhappy woman, and never, as long as she lived, lost sight either of her or her son. He was able to procure for her a little employment from his master—set her thus in the way of honestly earning her living, and had reason to hope that that Sabbath evening was the turning-point of her life." "And your father, I suppose, kept his situation after all?" "He kept it for many years, and lived respected even by those who were strangers to the principles by which he was guided during life. He was, indeed, as the faithful servant, ready girded, and watchful for the coming of his Lord. Happy those who thus watch and wait for His appearing, who expect it not with fear, but with hope and joy; God's kingdom has already begun in their hearts, they count no effort great to win souls to His service, and the acts of their lives, as well as the words of their lips, seem to say: "THY KINGDOM COME!" [Illustration] CHAPTER IV.