y! Our business is gone! Alas, we have
nothing to hope for!"

"O, no, mother, it is not half so bad as that!" exclaimed Katy. "I went
up to Mrs. Gordon for the purpose of borrowing twenty dollars of her; I
didn't want it to look like charity, so I was going to ask her to keep
the watch till it was paid. That's all, mother."

"And she refused?"

"No; she was not at home."

"But your money is not all gone?"

Katy wanted to say it was not, but her conscience would not let her
practise deception. She had the three dollars which she had just
borrowed of Michael, and that was not all gone. But this was not the
question her mother asked, and it would be a lie to say the money was
not all gone, when she fully understood the meaning of the question.
Perhaps it was for her mother's good to deceive her; but she had been
taught to feel that she had no right to do evil that good might follow.

"It was all gone, but I borrowed three dollars," she replied, after a
little hesitation.

"Of whom?"

"Of Michael."

"Who's he?"

"Mrs. Gordon's man.

"O Katy! How could you do so?" sighed Mrs. Redburn.

"I couldn't help it, mother. He would make me take it;" and she gave
all the particulars of her interview with Michael and reviewed the
considerations which had induced her to accept the loan.

"Perhaps you are right, Katy. My pride would not have let me borrow of
a servant; but it is wicked for me to cherish such a pride. I try very
hard to banish it."

"Don't talk any more now, mother. We are too poor to be too proud to
accept a favor of one who is in a humble station." replied Katy.

"I don't know what will become of us," said Mrs. Redburn, as she turned
her head away to hide the tears that flooded her eyes.

Katy took up the Bible that lay by the bedside, and turning to the
twenty-third psalm, she read, "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not
want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside
the still waters."

"Go on, Katy; those words are real comfort," said Mrs. Redburn, drying
her tears. "I know it is wicked for me to repine."

Katy read the whole psalm, and followed it with others, which produced
a healing influence upon her mother's mind, and she seemed to forget
that the purse was empty, and that they had placed themselves under
obligations to a servant.

The sufferer rested much better than usual that night, and Katy was
permitted to sleep the greater part of the time--a boon which her