ess
sad. "He always had handy a bit o' baccy for the old men, and a screw
o' tea for the old women," it was said.

One poor, sick old woman was told by the doctor that she must have some
dainties and some wine, which she had no money to buy. But each day a
good fairy brought them to her, and the good fairy was Colonel Gordon.

A sick man, who lay fretting in bed, feeling there was nothing to do,
nothing to interest him, found each day a _Daily News_ left at his
door. Again the good fairy was Colonel Gordon.

A big, rough waterman, tossing about in bed with an aching, parched
throat, and in a burning fever, also knew the good fairy. Night after
night the Colonel sat by his bed, tending him as gently as the gentlest
nurse, and placing cool grapes in his parched mouth.

In the Colonel's big, old-fashioned garden, with its trim borders of
boxwood, one would find on summer days the old and the halt sunning
themselves. Many nice flowers and vegetables were grown in the garden,
but they did not belong to him. He allowed some of his poor people to
plant and sow there what vegetables they chose, and then to make money
for themselves by selling them.

Presents of fruit and flowers sent to him at once found their way to
the hospital or to the workhouse. People saw that it was no use ever
to give Gordon any presents, because they at once went to those who
needed the things more than he did.

To the poor he gave pensions of so much a week--from 1s. to L1. Some
of these pensions were still kept up and paid to the day of his death,
thirteen years later.

He was always tender-hearted, always merciful, and he _always_ forgave.

A soldier got tipsy, and stole five valuable patent locks. Gordon
asked the manager of the works from which they had been taken what he
meant to do.

"The carpenters were to blame for leaving the locks about, so I am
going to let the soldier off," said the manager.

"Thank you, thank you," said Gordon, as eagerly as if he himself had
been the thief. "That is what I should have done myself."

One day a woman called on him and told him a piteous story. He left
the room to get her half-a-sovereign, and while he was gone she stole
his overcoat, and hid it under her skirt. When he came back with the
money, she thanked him again and again, and went away. As she walked
along the street, the overcoat--a brown one--slipped down. A policeman
noticed it, and asked her what it meant. The woman, to