ng doctor held trembled. "I haven't the nerve. I've been going on a
whiskey nerve too long."

"Dr. Barner," the young man replied, as he returned the other's grasp,
"I thank you for your good words, but I wasn't alone when I did it. The
bravest little girl in all the world was here and shamed me out of my
weakness and," he added reverently, "I think God Himself steadied my
hand."

The old man looked up wondering.

"I believe you, Clay," he said simply.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE HARVEST

Tom went straight to his mother that morning and told her
everything--the party he had gone to, his discontent, his desire for
company and fun, and excitement, taking the money, and the events of
the previous night.

Mrs. Motherwell saw her boy in a new light as she listened, and Tom had
a glorified vision of his mother as she clasped him in her arms crying:
"It is our fault Tom, mine and your father's; we have tried to make you
into a machine like we are ourselves, and forgot that you had a soul,
but it's not too late yet, Tom. I hate the money, too, if it's only to
be hoarded up; the money we sent to Polly's mother has given me more
pleasure than all the rest that we have."

"Mother," Tom said, "how do you suppose that money happened to be in
that overcoat pocket?"

"I don't know," she answered; "your father must have left it there when
he wore it last. It looks as if the devil himself put it there to tempt
you, Tom."

When his father came back from Winnipeg, Tom made to him a full
confession as he had to his mother; and was surprised to find that his
father had for him not one word of reproach. Since sending the money to
Polly's mother Sam had found a little of the blessedness of giving, and
it had changed his way of looking at things, in some measure at least.
He had made up his mind to give the money back to the church, and now
when he found that it had gone, and gone in such a way, he felt vaguely
that it was a punishment for his own meanness, and in a small measure,
at least, he was grateful that no worse evil had resulted from it.

"Father, did you put that money there?" Tom asked.

"Yes, I did Tom," he answered. "I ought to be ashamed of myself for
being so careless, too."

"It just seemed as if it was the devil himself," Tom said. "I had no
intention of drinking when I took out that money."

"Well, Tom," his father said, with a short laugh, "I guess the devil
had a hand in it, he was in me quite a bit when I put