A Flat Iron for a Farthing

those most dreary places of worship too common at that time, in London and elsewhere. It was ugly outside, but the outside ugliness was as nothing compared with the ugliness within. The win

n and unicorn on the gallery in front. The clerk's box, the reading-desk, and the pulpit, piled one above another, had a symmetrical effect, to which the umbrella-shaped sounding-board above gave a distant resemblance to a Chinese pagoda. The only things which gave warmth or colour to the interior as a whole were the cushions and pew curtains. There were plenty of them, and they were mostly red. These same curtains added to the sense of isolation, which was already sufficiently attained by the height of the pew walls and their doors and bolts. I think it was this-and the fact that, as the congregation took no outward part in the prayers except that of listenin

ted evening service, at which the claims of a missionary society had been enforced, Polly confided to me, with some triumph in he

ought to "try to attend." I rather expected her to resent my advice, but she said that she had "sometimes thought it wa

to church, though the place was hideous, the ritual dreary, and the minister mumbling. When by chance there was a nice hymn, such as, "Glory to Thee," or "O God, our help in ages past," we were quite happy. We also tried manfully to "attend" to the sermons, which, considering the lengt

e very re

unday, and as the services were now a matter of interest to us, Polly and I were excited too. I had been troubled wi

bounds; and when the sermon was ended, and we began to sing, "From lowest depths of woe," I burst into a passion of weeping. The remarkable part of the incident was that, the rest of the party having sat with their noses in the air qu

ute's peace while that tooth's in his

But Aunt Maria answered for me-"Can't yo

my outburst, and suffered for my disingen

unt; and, with tears that had now become simply

n't hurt you, my little man," he added, with the affable mendaciousness of his craft. Fortunately for

you, my little man?" said the jocos

answered, candidly; "but I think

original, which puzzled me extremely. Then he gave me sixpen

. This church was very well built and appropriately decorated. The music was good, the responses of the congregation hearty, and the

at she should go with us to the evening service. She did go, but I am bound to confess that she decided on a loyal pre

n the threefold ministry of clerk, reader, and preacher, symbolized by t

pressed by the sermons at the new church a

did not efface. I made the most earnest resolutions to be active in deeds of kindness "when I was a man," and, not being troubled by considerations of po

hurch. I am ashamed to confess that I was guilty of the meanness of changing a sixpence which I had dedicated to our "cha

with folly, vanity, and imperfection?), our benevolence was not without sincerity or self-denial, and broug

is this kn

t yet rema

ng in the expenditure of those incomes, it is well to remove a due proportion of what one has beyond the reach of the ever-growing monster of extravagance; and, being decided upon in an unbiased and calm moment, it is the less likely to be too much for one's domestic claims, or too little for one's religious duty. It frees one for ever from that grudging and often comical spasm of meanness which attacks s

, and it must be confessed that the objects of our

quite blind, and he reads out of a book with such queer letters. It's one of the Gospels, he says; so he must be very good, for he reads it all day long. And he can't have any home, for he sits in the street. And he's got a ticket on his back to say

favour of this very poor and very pious man; and at th

rprised to get so much. And he said, 'God bless you, miss!' I wish you'd

you were a miss,

my voice," said Po

r line, as if he were rubbing out something on a slate, were most striking; and as I stood beside him I distinctly heard him read the verse, "Now Barabbas was a robber." It was a s

urning things over, brewing them, so to speak, in my mind. I stood pondering the peculiarities of the object of our c

say it out lou

blinking and rolling his eyes,

asure I takes

threw the blind man some coppers. But in the moment before he did so, and when there seemed a possibility of his passing without what I suspect was a customary dole, such a sharp expression came into the scarcely visible

ol you learnt to see so w

f his "sightless orbs," and taking up his stool, and mutte

at he had the best possible reason for being able to "s