"Well, the very next night, as I was doing my chores, who should come to my house but this Ray Branford. 'I want to see you on business, Mr. Woodhull,' he said. 'Well, here I am,' I answered, gruffly. 'Do you remember how, one fall, some one stole your watermelons?' he asked. 'Yes,' said I, kinder getting an idea of what he was driving at. 'And your strawberries, and apples, and pears,' he goes on, naming the times. 'Yes,' answered I, shortly. 'How much,' inquired he, 'would pay you for them all?' I thought it over, and to test his repentance, I put it just as high as I could. 'About twenty-five dollars,' I answered. Would you believe it, that youngster took out a roll of bills, and said, 'Here, Mr. Woodhull, is fifteen dollars that I have been saving to get me some clothes with; but I will give you that now, and I will pay you the other ten as soon as I can save it. Will you forgive me?' My brethren, you could have knocked me down with a feather then, so to speak. I never was so ashamed in my life. I shook hands with him, but I took the money, and I have taken the other ten. Perhaps you think I was hard on him, so I'll just say that boy isn't going to lose anything by it. "After he had gone I went into the house and opened the Bible, and read about Zaccheus. Then I said, 'There, Jacob Woodhull, you and some other folks are like those self-righteous citizens of Jericho. You have wondered why the Lord wanted to go down to that Branford house and stop with such miserable sinners. Meanwhile, that boy, just like Zaccheus, has stood and said, 'Lord, if I have taken anything from any man, I restore him fourfold,' for I reckon he has just about settled with me in that proportion. And all the time the Master was saying, 'This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.' I guess, brethren, what the Lord has cleansed, we better not call either common or unclean." Amid an impressive silence he sat down, and a unanimous vote was cast for the lad's acceptance. Nor did the First Church people ever have cause to regret that vote; indeed, in after years they were accustomed to allude to that hour, and with pardonable pride assert, "Among all we have received into this church, no one has given more marked evidence of conversion than has Ray Branford, or that the Divine voice said unto him, 'Fear not; for I have redeemed thee.'" CHAPTER V. OLD TIES SEVERED. The month of March opened cold and stormy. All day long the rain and sleet had fallen unceasingly. As night approached there was no cessation of the storm; it had rather increased. During the evening the wind veered. The cold was growing more and more intense. The clouds lowered darkly, and prematurely hid the day, while they poured their watery contents down in sweeping floods.