ways,
Till grown up a hardened sinner,
Then the gallows ends his days.

Theft will not be always hidden,
Though we fancy none can spy;
When we take a thing forbidden,
God holds it with His eye.

Guard my heart, O God of heaven,
Lest is covet what's not mine;
Lest I take what is not given,
Guard my heart and hands from sin.

Watts

[Illustration: Highway Robbery.]

[Page 73--Stealing Land]

The Thieves' Ladder

The girls were helping in the house,
With bustle and with show,
And told the boys to go away,
And not disturb them so.
And the boys went whistling down the streets,
And looking in the shops
At tempting heaps of oranges,
And piles of sugar-drops.

"Here, Willie, to the grocer's run;
Be sharp, now--there's a man,
And bring me home a pound of plums
As quickly as you can!
"Don't touch a plum--be sure you don't;
To-morrow you shall eat."
"I won't." he said, and, like a top,
Went spinning down the street.

The grocer weigh'd them in his scales,
And there was one too much;
He took it out, and all was right,
The scale was to a touch.
He wrapp'd them up in whitey-brown,
And tied them with a string,
And put the money in the till,
As 'twere a common thing.

Young Willie watched, with greedy eyes,
As this affair went on.
The plums--they look'd so very nice!
He wouldn't take but _one_.
So going quick behind a post,
He tore the paper so
That he could take out two or three,
And nobody would know.

There was a little voice that said,
Close by, in Willie's heart,
"Don't tear the hole--don't take the plum--
Don't play a thievish part!"
The little voice--it spoke in vain!
He reach'd his mother's door;
She did not see the hole he'd made,
His trouble then was o'er.

And what a trifling thing it seem'd,
To take one single plum!
A little thing we hold between
Our finger and out thumb.
And yet upon that Christmas eve,
That period so brief,
Young Willie set his foot upon
"The ladder of the thief!"

And as he lay awake that night,
He heard his parents speak;
He heard distinctly what they said,
The blood rush'd to his cheek.
He lay and listn'd earnestly;
They might have found him out,
And he might get a flogging too,
'Twas that he thought about.

A guilty person cann