t that he has been a
sharer in pleasures purchased with stolen money?"

Bert looked up in surprise. Stolen money! What could his father mean?
Mr. Lloyd understood the movement, and anticipated the unasked question.

"Yes, Bert; stolen money. The beer, the candy, and the ice cream, which
Dick Wilding lavished upon you so freely, were paid for with money
stolen from his mother's money drawer. He found a key which fitted the
lock, and has taken out, no one knows just how much money; and you have
been sharing in what that stolen money purchased."

Bert was fairly stunned. Dick Wilding a thief! And he a sharer in the
proceeds of his guilt! He felt as though he must run and hide himself.
That Dick should do wrong was not entirely a surprise to him, but that
his sin in being a companion of Dick's on the sly should be found out in
this way, this it was which cut him to the heart. Without a word of
excuse to offer, he sat there, self-condemned and speechless. The
silence of the room was appalling. He could not bear it any longer.
Springing from his chair, he rushed across the room, threw himself on
his knees before his mother, and putting his head in her lap, burst into
a paroxysm of tears, sobbing as though his heart would break.

"Poor Bert, poor Bert!" murmured his mother, tenderly, passing her hand
softly over the curly head in her lap.

Mr. Lloyd was deeply moved, and put his hand up to his eyes to conceal
the tears fast welling from them. For some minutes the quiet of the room
was broken only by Bert's sobs, and the steady ticking of the clock upon
the mantelpiece.

Mr. Lloyd was the first to speak.

"You had better get up and go to your room, Bert. We both know how sorry
you are, and we forgive you for having so disobeyed us. But we are not
the only ones of whom you must ask forgiveness. Go to your knees, Bert,
and ask God to forgive you."

Bert rose slowly to his feet, and, not venturing to look either his
father or mother in the face, was going out of the door, when his father
called him back.

"Just one word more, Bert. It is not long since you won a brave fight,
and now you have been sadly defeated by a far worse enemy than Rod
Graham. You can, in your own strength, overcome human foes, but only by
Divine strength can you overcome the tempter that has led you astray
this time. Pray for this strength, Bert, for it is the kind the Bible
means when it says, 'Quit you like men, be strong.'"

And with a look of