well as if she had spoken, "that he need not have any fear if he would only put his trust in God." When he had spent a while of the night in that way in her company on the hill, a calm used come upon him. The strain and the oppression used to lift from his heart, so that he used to wonder what it was that took away his troubles. When he saw the glimmering of the day coming he used to face for home, and go and lie down in his bed as if he had spent the night in it.
Well, at length the last day was close upon him.
"It was thirteen years ago to-morrow," said he to himself, "that I left home to buy some leather. I had three shillings in my pocket. They could not go very far, but they were all I had. I was asked for them, for the Saviour's sake. I gave them. I could not help it. How could I have kept them? They were all I had, but even so, they were not mine. Everything belongs to God. I should have been only keeping His own from Him, praise be to Him! I did not keep them at all events, whatever the result may be for me now—I was strictly bound by the virtue of the Holy Things—I accepted the bond, strictly—by my own free will."
He would take up a shoe and begin to work. Soon he would fling; it away again. He would walk out and look about him, as if he were expecting somebody to come. The men thought he was expecting some one, and that probably the expected person would soon come. If they had known who it was that was expected, most likely they would not have stayed long in the place. They knew nothing about it, and they went on working as hard as they could. When it was time to stop, they got up to go home.
