ow praise the saints,
here's the dear young lady. Come in, Miss Murray! Och, wurra, wurra,
it's a black day for this house, indade!"

Gladys was sitting on the old lounge beside the stove awkwardly holding
the baby.

"Oh, Miss Murray," she cried shrilly. "Somethin' awful's happened!
Billy Perkins's gone to jail. He got drunk and he's been steal--"

Her mother shook the broom at her. "Hold your tongue," she said
sharply. For Mrs. Perkins, her face grey with suffering, had arisen on
the bed. "Oh, Teacher, is that you!" she cried, bursting into fresh
tears. Helen went and sat on the edge of the bed, and took her hand.
"What is it?" she whispered. "Perhaps it's not so bad!" she faltered,
making a vague attempt to comfort.

But when the pitiful story came out it was bad enough. Mrs. Perkins
told it between sobs, aided by interpolations from her neighbours.
Billy had been working steadily up till last Saturday, quite happy
because he could not get at the drink. But on Saturday he went into
the village to buy some fresh meat from a farmer for the camp. And
there was a Jericho Road up north too, it seemed, where thieves lay in
wait for the unwary. And Billy fell among them. He went into the
tavern just for a few minutes, leaving the meat on the sleigh outside,
and when he came out it was gone. Billy had gone on towards the camp
despairingly, in dread of losing his job, and praying all the way for
some intervention of Providence to avert the result of his mistake.
For in spite of many a fall before temptation, poor Billy, in a blind
groping way, clung to the belief that there was a God watching him and
caring for him. So he went on, praying desperately, and about half-way
to camp there came an answer. Right by the roadside, as if dropped
there by a miracle, lay a quarter of beef, sticking out of the snow.
It was evidently a small cache some one had placed near the trail for a
short time, and had Billy been in his normal senses he would never have
touched it. But the drink was still benumbing his brain, and quickly
digging out the miraculous find he loaded it upon his sleigh and
hurried to camp.

But retribution swiftly followed. The stolen meat had belonged to the
Graham camp, and it seemed it was a terrible crime to steal from a rich
corporation, much worse than from a half-drunken man like poor Billy.
The first thief was not arrested, but Billy was, and he was sent to
jail. He would not be home for ev