The merchant nodded approvingly, and then told the story of the accident: "It was the summer Louis was four years old. My sister was visiting us with her little girl, and my wife, who was living then, spent much time riding about the city and its suburbs with her and the two children. I had a new coachman, but he seemed to be thoroughly reliable, and I had no thought of danger, though I knew the horses were exceedingly high-spirited. It seems, however, that the fellow drank occasionally, and one morning, when my wife had ordered the carriage to be driven around to the door for a ride, she found that he was tipsy. At first she thought of postponing the drive. Would that she had done so! But it was the last opportunity my sister would have to ride out, as on the morrow she was to return home, and they had arranged an excursion to Weetunk Lake, five or six miles from here. Finally, much against her better judgment, my wife decided to go. "They reached the lake, and were riding along a steep bank on the west side, when, for some unaccountable reason, the horses became frightened, and the driver in his drunken condition was unable to manage them, and down the bank they plunged. The carriage was overturned and crushed against some trees, while the liberated horses and driver were hurled down into the lake. They escaped serious injury, as also did my wife and sister. But both children were caught under the broken carriage; and, when removed, it was found that my boy's back was injured, and one limb of my sister's little girl was wrenched almost from its socket: one was deformed, the other crippled for life." "Yet how merciful was it that their lives were spared!" remarked Ray. "Merciful!" cried the merchant, with intense bitterness. "A strange mercy, it seems to me. Why, I am more merciful than that! If I could, I would not have allowed a defect, nor a pain to have come to my beautiful child." "God never does wrong," replied Ray, simply; "and even inscrutable providences are overshadowed by mercy, though we may not see it." "It would take a great deal to make me believe that," muttered the merchant.