es of any sort, he often used to take grapes
and other dainties to the sick and the dying.

All forms of distress aroused his interest; and when the late Canon
Miller of Greenwich was collecting money for the suffering people at
Coventry, during the cotton famine, Gordon took a large and valuable
gold medal, that had been presented to him by the Empress of China, and
having with a gouge scooped out his name, which was engraved upon it,
put it into an envelope and despatched it to the Canon, merely
notifying briefly the object for which it was sent. Efforts have been
since made to discover the fate of the medal, which was of the best
gold, and twice the size of a crown piece, but owing to the death of
Canon Miller, they have hitherto been unsuccessful.

Gordon was, indeed, generous to a fault, and sometimes he was taken in
by impostors; but as he had a good knowledge of human nature, he was
not deceived so often as many with his generous heart would be. His
generosity was only limited by his purse, and there were times in his
life when he drew the line too fine, for, as he himself once said, "I
assure you that many a time I have not known where my food was to come
from, nor if I should find a place in which to lie down at night." So
long as there was money in his pocket, so long had he money to give
away; but on many occasions he forgot that he had a long railway
journey before him, and that the generosity he displayed to the needy
would not be extended to him at the railway ticket office. But on the
whole, his money was well laid out; many is the lad he started in life,
many the waif he picked up from the gutter, who, now a well-to-do
respectable member of society, might, but for him, have been a
criminal, getting into trouble himself, and leading others astray.

* * *

It would be interesting to follow more in detail the career of this
remarkable man at Gravesend, but space forbids. Gordon only spent six
years at this kind of work, and much of the time was engaged in his
official duties, yet the results were so good, that one cannot but
regret that a longer part of his career was not passed in the same way.
From his letters written in the Soudan, it is evident that he often
thought of devoting his old age to work among the poor, had he been
spared. It was, however, willed otherwise, and we are only permitted to
see how much can be done by a man in six years, when his heart is
t