'No, I'm not old in years--not sixty--but old enough to regret my youth,' he said. 'Are you still of the same mind about the spending of money, if you should ever have it to spend?' 'Yes; but it is so unlikely, Uncle Abel, that I shall ever have any money to spend. It is quite easy saying what we can do in imaginary circumstances. Reality is always different, and more difficult to deal with.' 'You are very wise for your years. How many are they?' 'Seventeen and three months.' 'Ay, well, you look your age and more. You'd pass for twenty, but no wonder; and'-- 'I wish you would not talk so much, uncle; it will excite and exhaust you,' she said, in gentle remonstrance. 'I must talk, if my time is short. Suppose I'm taken, what will you do with yourself, eh?' 'The way will open up for me, I do not doubt; there must be a corner for me somewhere,' she said bravely; nevertheless, her young cheek blanched, and she shivered slightly as she glanced round the place--poor enough, perhaps, but which at least afforded her a peaceful and comfortable home. These signs were not unnoticed by the dying man, and a faint, slow, melancholy smile gathered about his haggard mouth. 'You believe, I suppose, that the Lord will provide for you?' he said grimly. 'Yes, I do.' 'Does He never fail, eh?' 'Never. He does not always provide just as we expect or desire, but provision is made all the same,' answered the girl, and her eyes shone with a steadfast light. 'It's a very comfortable doctrine, but not practicable, nor, to my thinking, honest. Do you mean to say that it is right to sit down with folded hands waiting for the Lord to provide, and living off other people at the same time?' Gladys smiled. 'No, that is not right, but wrong, very wrong, and punishment always follows. Heaven helps those who help themselves; don't you remember that?' 'Ay, well, I don't understand your theology, I confess. But we may as well think it out. What do you suppose will become of me after I shuffle off, eh?' 'I don't know, uncle. You best know what your own hope is,' she replied. 'I have no hope, and I don't see myself how anybody can presume to have any. It's all conjecture about a future life. How does anybody know? Nobody has ever come back to tell the tale.' 'No; but we know, all the same, that there are many mansions in heaven, and that God has prepared them for His children.'