istrict doctor at once saw the
case was beyond all hope. Will you come immediately?

"Yours faithfully,

"John Hardy."

As the Pastor left his house, he met one after another of Nils
Rasmussen's neighbours coming for him. He heard of John Hardy's
assistance and care, and that he had been the whole night acting as
nurse, as the family were incapable.

As the Pastor entered, he met Hardy.

"It is too late, Herr Pastor," said the latter; "the man is dead. But
go in and speak to the wife, and I will wait for you. Here is twenty
kroner, which you can give her; the expenses of the funeral I will
bear, and I can arrange that she shall receive ten kroner weekly,
through the post-office, until they can help themselves."

In half an hour the Pastor came out, and he said, "Hardy, I thank you
for your attention to this poor man. You have done nothing more than
what was right you should do, and what any one else should have done;
but you have done your duty with a kindliness that does you honour."

Hardy said nothing, the horror of watching a man dying in agony for a
whole night had unstrung his steady nerves. On reaching the parsonage,
he went to his room, and, wearied out, at last fell asleep.

The Pastor, after the usual morning prayers with his household, said,
"Stay, Kirstin! You have wickedly cast shame on an honest man; you
have attributed sin to another without cause. You have heard that
Rasmussen is dead, and how he died; but you do not know that the man
you foully slandered had done his utmost for his brother man. When I
came to Rasmussen's house, Herr Hardy's clothes were covered with dirt
and blood. He had tended the dying man the whole night; he had torn up
his linen shirt and under-clothing for bandages; and when I was about
to speak to the widow, he gave me money for present need, and has
ordered it so that she shall not want for the future. And yet this is
the man to whom you would impute sin and shame. Ask forgiveness of
God, and beg Herr Hardy's pardon. Go!"

The hard-natured Jutland woman was overcome. Froken Helga's eyes
filled with tears, and she went and kissed her father.

"We were wrong to think evil of another, under any circumstances,"
said the Pastor, "or to allow suspicion of evil to grow in our minds."

Hardy was ignorant of the little episode thus acted in the Pastor's
household, and when he came down from his room some time later, he
found a breakfast waiting for him, the Pastor shook hand