Page:Her Benny - Silas K Hocking (Warne, 1890).djvu/286

262 But what surprises me most," said Mrs. Munroe, "is the sterling honesty that seems always to have characterized him. As a rule, those street Arabs have the ccudest notions of right and wrong."

"He told me once," said Eva, "that he could just remember his mother, who told him to be honesty and truthful, and good; but his little sister Nelly, who died just before I met him, seems to have been his safeguard, and but for her he said he felt certain he should have been a thief."

Meanwhile the subject of this conversation was making his way along the silent lanes that lay between Brooklands and Scout Farm like one in a dream. Could it be really true, he mused, that he had seen his angel face to face, that he had listened again while she sang "Love at Home" and that he heard from her own lips how the lost banknote had been found, and how that now no stain rested upon his name? What a wonderful day it had been! Could it be possible that his long-buried hopes might be realized at last?

In a lonely part of the road he paused and listened, but no sound broke the stillness. Above him twinkled the silent stars; around him all nature lay hushed and still.

"God is here," he said; and lifting up his face to the sky, and clasping his hands together^ he poured out his heart in thanksgiving.

"O God!" he said, "I thank Thee for all things ; for the sorrow, and pain, and loss, for the darkness through