the old pitcher. I worried all that day, and I think if I had gotten a
chance that night after I got home, I would have put the check back. But
the old Devil was there saying, "You fool, keep it! It is not missed,
and even if it is no one will accuse you of stealing your own money." I
tell you, the Devil had me hand and foot, and there seemed to be no
getting away. Oh! if I could have had some person to tell me plainly
what to do at this time, it might have been the turning-point in my
life! Anyway, the check didn't get back to the pitcher. I had it and the
Devil had me.

Next day I disguised myself somewhat. I made my face dirty and put on a
cap. I had been wearing a hat before, so I thought the teller at the
bank would not know me. I had been there often with checks for my boss.
Well, the teller just looked at the check, gave me a glance, and passed
out the $12. It did not take me long to get out of the bank. I knew I
had done wrong, and I felt it, and would have given anything if I could
have undone it; but it was too late, and my old companion, the Devil,
said, "What a nice time you can have, and wasn't it easy!"

When I went home the first question was, "Did you see your check?" My
dear mother asked me that, never thinking that her boy had taken it.
Oh! if I had had the courage to tell her then and there, how much misery
and trouble it would have saved me in after life! But I was a moral
coward, and I said, "No, mother; where did you put it?" I had her
guessing whether she really put it in the pitcher or not.

There was a regular hunt for that check, and I hunted as much as any
one, but it could not be found. Mother did not know much about banks in
those days, but some one told her about a week after that she ought to
go to the bank and stop payment on the check. That sounded good to