Sowing and Reaping: A Temperance Story

s by three o'clock, that note would be protested. Money was exceedingly hard to raise, and he was about despairing. Once he thought of applying to John Anders

less than an hour his note would be protested

ly roused from his painful reflections, answered, "Yes, com

to see you

ur service,

g aided an unfortunate friend more than a dozen

friend of mine, a school-mate

liquidate my father's debt. Here is the

thered in his eyes as he reached out his hand to receive the thrice wel

me to the bank or

James Smith, taking

*

er smiling and bowing as Paul entered, "I was afrai

arket is very tight, but I thi

o keep your head above the water; but you must take it

ou, good

omplicated I refused to foreclose a mortgage which I had on his home. An acquaintance of mine sneered at my lack of business keenness, and predicted that my money would be totally lost, when I told him perhaps it was the best investment I ever made." He smiled incredulously and said, "I would rather see it than hear of it:

fluence of my sainted mother;" and a flush of sat

arance and kindness to her in her hour of trouble. My mother went to see my father's principal creditor and asked him only to give her a little time to straighten out the tangled threads of her business, but he was inexorable, and said that he had waited and lost by it. Very soon he had an administrator appointed by the court, who in about two months took the business in his hands; and my mother was left to struggle along with her little ones, and face an uncertain future. These were dark days but we managed to live through them. I have often heard her say that she lived by faith and not sight, that poverty had its compensations, that there was something very sweet in a life of simple trust, to her, God was not some far off and unapproachable force in the universe, the unconscious Creator of all

t my son?"

and bonnet too." It seems as if I see her now,

s, it is

r, why I found i

it is n

in`t you goin

down to the Clarion o

not wait till it

what

wner for it, then

ady to use what is not your own. I should not feel that I was dealin

sing and being disheartened, she had given up all hope of finding it, when she happened to see it advertised in the paper. She was very grateful to my mother for restoring the money and offered her some compensation, but she refused to take it, saying she had only done her duty, and would have been ashamed of herself had she not done so. Her conduct on this occasion made

nd me and pay me to-day

, when you came in to b

brother that he was so

eared that you

"for out West I had

iable. We would trust him with ten thousand dollars if we had it. Can you do anything

nerosity to her little ones, and I am glad that I have the privilege of helping him. I immediately

d I feel that a heavy load h

eeds of kindness and they were yiel