Page:Her Benny - Silas K Hocking (Warne, 1890).djvu/178

154 "Make haste, Benny" she said kindly, giving him the letter she had written. "I'm afraid Mr. Lawrence will think you've been away a very long time."

Benny took the letter without a word, and hurried away with a heart fall of gratitude for the kindly treatment he had received. It seemed to him as if that day he had had a glimpse of Paradise, and had spoken to one of God's angels face to face.

How bright and smooth his path of life was growing! He almost feared sometimes that he was dreaming, and that he would awake and find himself destitute and forsaken.

He was now beginning to enjoy life, and as he looked back upon the past he almost wondered how he and his little sister had managed to live in those dark years of cold and want.

When Joe Wrag first heard of Benny's good fortune he lifted up his hands, and said in a voice of reverence—

"The Lord is good ! the Lord is good!" Then after a moment's pause he went on, "But oh! what an old sinner I've a-been, to be sure!"

"How so?" said Benny.

"How so? 'cause as how I turned my back upon God, an' tried to persuade mysel' that He had turned His back on me. Oh, I did, lad, an' in my heart I called Him 'ard names. I didn't dare say it wi' my lips, but in my heart, boy, I said He wur cruel—that He wur a monster, that He had no feelin', that He had shut the door agin me, when all the time He wur a-sayin', 'Joe, come back, come back,