," said he to his aged
parent as he sat by his side, "I have been learning a lesson about the
martyrs. I see now how unfit I was to be tried as they were; if I could
not bear the loss of one moss-rose patiently for Christ's sake, how
could I have borne fire and prison, and such like things?"

"Ah, Jacob," said the old man, "'tis in little common trials such as we
meet with every day, that, by God's grace, such a spirit is reared
within us as was in the hearts of the great martyrs of olden time;--tell
me, can you forgive the young squire?"

"The blessed Jesus forgave his persecutors," whispered Jacob faintly,
"and the martyrs prayed for those who tormented them--in this at least I
may be like them. Father, I do forgive the young squire; and, father,"
said Jacob, as he opened his eyes after an interval of a few minutes'
rest, "get your spade, and dig up the tree, and take it with my duty to
the young squire. Don't wait till I'm dead, father; I should not feel
parting with it then; but I love the tree, and I wish to give it to him
now. And if you dig up a very large ball of earth with it, he can have
it planted in his garden at once; and--;" but poor Jacob could say no
more; he sank back quite exhausted, and he never returned to the
subject again, for in a day or two afterwards he died.

* * * * *

When old Leonard Dobbin appeared at the great house with his
wheel-barrow containing the rose tree and its ball of earth, there was
no small stir amongst the servants. Some said that it was fine impudence
in him to come troubling the family about his trumpery rose, bringing
the tree, as if he wanted to lay Jacob Dobbin's blood at their young
master's door; others shook their heads, and said it was a bad business,
and that that tree was an ugly present, and one that they should not
care to have; and as to old Aggie, she held her tongue, but prayed that
the child she had reared so anxiously might yet become changed, and grow
up an altered man.

Old Leonard could not get audience of the squire or his son; but the
gardener, who was in the servants' hall when he arrived with his rose,
told him to wheel it along, and he would plant it in Master James's
garden, and look after it until it bloomed again; and there the rose
finally took up its abode.

Meanwhile the young squire grew worse and worse; he respected no one's
property, if he fancied it himself; and all the tenants and domestics
were afraid