"I will ask her, and I am sure I shall not be refused," said Thomas;
"but here is your milk--come, I am going with you."

Mrs. Walters, either being in a better humour than usual, or wishing
to appear amiable to her respectable neighbour, not only took no
notice of William's rather long stay, but consented he should spend
Sunday evening with the watchman.

Great lightness of heart would have been his in consequence of this
consent, had not his spirit been weighed down with the burden of his
sin. He felt how blunt are all the arrows of adversity in comparison
with those of guilt; and how insignificant are all the trials imposed
by cruel men, contrasted with the pain of soul caused by the sense of
having displeased God.

Twilight came on, and with it he sought the quiet of his comfortless
attic. Its rude walls and squalid furniture were, however, not now
noticed; its privacy and seclusion were all that his soul desired. He
threw himself on the pallet which served him for a bed, and wept
bitterly as he thought of his parents, who had taken so much pains to
teach him to abhor a lie, and recalled the words of his mother, who
constantly admonished him how much better it was to suffer wrongfully
than do wrong; and bitter was his self-reproach, that for the sake of
a paltry sixpence he had told a lie, and in doing so sinned against
the God of truth, whose word declares that "lying lips are an
abomination to the Lord."

Oh, how guilty he felt! how humbled in his own estimation! and with
deep and bitter repentance he bewailed his error, and entreated pardon