EAKING THE NEWS.

Simon Craft and Lawyer Sharpman were sitting together in the rear room
of the latter's law office. The window-shades were closely drawn,
shutting out the mellow light of the full moon, which rested brightly
and beautifully on all objects out of doors.

The gas jet, shaded by a powerful reflector, threw a disk of light
on the round table beneath it, but the corners of the room were in
shadow. It was in a shaded corner that Craft was sitting, resting his
folded arms on his cane, while Sharpman, seated carelessly by the
table, was toying with a pencil. There were pleased looks on the faces
of both men; but old Simon seemed to have grown thinner and feebler
during the summer months, and his cough troubled him greatly.

Sharpman was saying: "If we can succeed in managing the boy, now,
as well as we have managed the mother, I think we are all right. I
somewhat fear the effect of your presence on him, Craft, but he may
as well see you to-night as later. You must keep cool, and be gentle;
don't let him think you are here for any purpose but his good."

"Oh! you may trust me, Mr. Sharpman," responded the old man, "you may
trust me. I shall get into the spirit of the scheme very nicely."

"What kind of a boy is he, any way? Pretty clear-headed?"

"Well, yes, middling; but as obstinate as a mule. When he gets his
mind set on a thing, it's no use to try to budge him. I've whipped him
till he was black and blue, and it didn't do a penny's worth of good."

"You should have used moral suasion, Craft; that's the way to treat
boys. Get their confidence, and then you can handle them. Well, we'll
get Ralph's mind fixed on the fact that he is Mrs. Burnham's son, and
see how he'll stick to that. Hark! There they come now. Sooner than I
expected."

The outer door of the office was opened, and Ralph and the young man
entered. The messenger disappeared into the inner room, but after a
minute or two he came out and ushered Ralph into the presence of the
lawyer. Sharpman arose, greeted the boy pleasantly and shook hands
with him, and Ralph thought that lawyers were not such forbidding
people after all.

"Do you recognize this gentleman?" said Sharpman, turning, with a wave
of his hand, toward old Simon.

The old man was sitting there with his hands crossed on his cane, and
with a grim smile on his gaunt face. Ralph looked intently, for a
moment, into the shadow, and then, with an exclamation of surprise and
fear o