and
recover his breath, walked to the window and looked out. In the field
below more than a score of ragged men, women and children were
scratching and digging among piles of ashes, eagerly searching for and
gathering up the half-burned cinders; searching, too, in the forlorn
hope of finding something of greater value that might have been thrown
away by accident. The rain beat noisily on the window pane and the
priest shivered as he looked at those scantily-clad little children, not
one of whom could boast of shoes and stockings, and at the white heads
and bent figures of old women on whose unprotected shoulders the rain
fell so pitilessly. What mattered the inclemency of the weather to them?
Winter would be here by and by; they must gather in all the fuel
possible before it was upon them with its snow and sleet and icy blasts.
In fact, even when winter came, many of these same little children and
old women, even grown men who either could not find other work to do or
did not care to seek it, many of these same people would be seen day
after day scratching and digging in this same field of ashes.

The priest turned from the window with a sigh of pity for the miserable
creatures below. His glance strayed over the untidy kitchen which bore
all the marks of the most extreme poverty and he gave another sigh of
pity for the man who had been brought so low in the last days of his
life, the man whom he had known in the time of his success and
prosperity.

He approached the chair beside the stove and the tired eyes opened
slowly and looked at him. Unaccustomed tears filled those eyes and the
hard voice softened marvelously.

"Nancy was right," that changed voice was saying. "I am dying. Father,
you say you bring me forgiveness in his name, forgiveness for the great
wrong I did him. In his name, I will accept the gift. Father, I will
confess my sins to you and beg God's pardon for them."

Two hours later, when poor, tired Maggie, with aching arms and aching
back, returned from her day's work, she was surprised at the gentleness
with which he greeted her. Never had he been so kind before: she was
more accustomed to harsh words and even curses than kindness from him.
She set about preparing their evening meal and he actually ate what she
put before him without even once finding fault with the food or with
her. She could not understand it and felt vaguely alarmed.

Again the door opened and a face peered in anxiously. It woul