fort to me, and God knows that I have nothing else to
comfort me in all the world--wealth, home, friends, and one dearer than
all,--all lost, and thou'rt all I have left, Trusty, to comfort me," and
he looked affectionately at his companion, whose head was resting
lovingly on his knee.

"Oh, I've heard the whining of your class before to-night," replied the
fellow, "and am not to be taken in by any of your sniffling, so you
needn't try that trick on me. Law is law, and I shall see it enforced,
and on you, too, in spite of your shuffling, you miserable old sneak of
a beggar, you."

"Friend," answered the old man with dignity, as he rose from the chair
and looked the fellow calmly in the face, "better men than you or I have
begged their daily bread before now, and eaten it, too, with an honest
conscience and a grateful heart, and more than once when night has
overtaken me, weary of journeying along inhospitable roads, and I have
been compelled to make my bed on the leaves under some hedge, I've
remembered that the Son of God when on the earth to teach us the sweet
lesson of charity, 'had not where to lay his head.' The lesson he came
to teach, you certainly have not learned, or you would never have made
my poverty and my misfortunes the butt of your scoffings."

The old man spoke with dignity, but the coarseness of the fellow's
nature and the hardening influence of the business he was engaged in
prevented him from feeling either shame or sympathy, for he turned
toward the door with an oath, saying: "You'll hear from me in the
morning, old chap, but I'll tell you this to chew on over night; that if
your tax money isn't ready when I come again, I'll teach you what it is
to break the laws in this city, and insult the officers whose duty it is
to see them enforced against just such white-headed old dead-beats as
you!" and with another oath, he passed out of the door and shut it with
a slam.

I don't know how the old man passed the night. But little sleep, I
warrant, came to his old eyes, for he was as timid as a child, and
easily frightened, and a threat against his own life would have
disturbed him less than one against the life of his dog. But whether he
slept or not, the hours of the night wheeled along their dark courses
without stopping, and speedily brought the dreaded morning. I know not
when he died, or where, but well I know that the memory of that
dreadful morning and the woe that came to him on it haunted him t