yde in the wherry, came
home, he approved of what mother had done.

"Why, you see, Jack, what I think is this," I heard her say; "I've no
right to point a finger at her, for if I hadn't had a good mother to
show me right and wrong, I might have been just as she is."

The next morning the doctor came again. He looked grave when he left
the stranger's room. "You are still resolved to let this poor outcast
remain in your house, Mrs Trawl?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, my good man thinks as I do, that we ought," answered mother,
positively.

Dr Rolt returned in the afternoon, accompanied by a gentleman wearing a
broad-brimmed hat and a straight-cut broadcloth coat of sombre hue. He
smiled pleasantly at mother as he took the seat she offered him without
doffing his hat, and beckoning to Mary and me, put his hands on our
heads, while he looked into our faces and smiled as he had done to
mother.

"I have brought Mr Silas Gray, a member of the Society of Friends,
knowing that I should have your leave, Mrs Trawl, as he desires to see
the poor girl you have taken care of," said Dr Rolt.

"Verily, sister, thou hast acted the part of the Good Samaritan towards
the hapless one of whom friend Rolt has told me, and I would endeavour
to minister to her spiritual necessities, the which I fear are great
indeed; also with thy leave I will help thee in supplying such creature
comforts as she may need," said Mr Gray.

"Thank you kindly, sir," answered mother. "I couldn't say much on the
matter of religion, except to tell her that God cares for her as well as
He does for the richest lady in the land, and will pardon her sins if
she will but turn to Him through Christ; and as to food, kickshaws fit
for sick folk are not much in my way, still I'll--"

"Thou knowest the very gist of the matter, sister," observed Mr Gray,
interrupting her; "but time is precious. I'll go in with friend Rolt
and speak to the wandering child." Saying this, Mr Gray accompanied
the doctor into the stranger's room.

He, after this, came again and again--never empty-handed--oftener indeed
than the doctor, whose skill failed, as he feared it would, to arrest
the poor girl's malady, while Mr Gray's ministrations were successful
in giving her the happy assurance that "though her sins were as scarlet,
she had become white as snow," so he assured mother.

"Praise the Lord," was her reply.

So the young stranger died--her name, her history, unknown. Mr Gray
pai