benefactor. You have saved
me."

"I believe it," said the man of benevolence.

And so he intrusted his goods and his money to the man he had reformed
by placing him in different circumstances.

But it is in the heart of man that evil lies; and from the heart's
impulses spring all our actions. That must cease to be a bitter fountain
before it can send forth sweet water. The thief was a thief still. Not
a month elapsed ere he was devising the means to enable him to get from
his kind, but mistaken friend, more than the liberal sum for which he
had agreed to serve him. He coveted his neighbour's goods whenever his
eyes fell upon them; and restlessly sought to acquire their possession.
In order to make more sure the attainment of his ends, he affected
sentiments of morality, and even went so far as to cover his purposes
by a show of religion. And thus he was able to deceive and rob his kind
friend.

Time went on; and the thief, apparently reformed by a change of relation
to society, continued in his post of responsibility. How it was, the
benefactor could not make out; but his affairs gradually became less
prosperous. He made investigations into his business, but was unable to
find anything wrong.

"Are you aware that your clerk is a purchaser of property to a
considerable extent?" said a mercantile friend to him one day.

"My clerk! It cannot be. His income is only five hundred dollars a
year."

"He bought a piece of property for five thousand last week."

"Impossible!"

"I know it to be true. Are you aware that he was once a convict in the
State's Prison?"

"Oh yes. I took him from prison myself, and gave him a chance for his
life. I do not believe in hunting men down for a single crime, the
result of circumstances rather than a bad heart."

"A truly honest man, let me tell you," replied the merchant, "will be
honest in any and all circumstances. And a rogue will be a rogue, place
him where you will. The evil is radical, and must be cured radically.
Your reformed thief has robbed you, without doubt."

"I have reason to fear that he has been most ungrateful," replied the
kind-hearted man, who, with the harmlessness of the dove, did not unite
the wisdom of the serpent.

And so it proved. His clerk had robbed him of over twenty thousand
dollars in less than five years, and so sapped the foundations of his
prosperity, that he recovered with great difficulty.

"You told me, when in prison," said the wronged m