little brown cottage.

He found Mrs. Stuart sitting by the bedside of her son, who, never
strong, had been utterly prostrated by the trouble which had come upon
him, and for two days he had been delirious with fever.

He did not recognize Sidney, and the latter could hardly repress his
tears as he took the young man's hot hand in his own and looked down at
his flushed face and unnaturally bright eyes, and heard him mutter
incoherently his denial of the theft of which he had been suspected.

That was the only call Sidney made that day. All else was forgotten as
he sat by Harry Stuart's bedside hour after hour, trying to atone for
the pain and grief his carelessness had caused.

Harry got well at last and was restored to his former place with an
increase in salary, and he and Sidney were firm friends for the rest of
their lives; but Sidney never forgot the lesson he had learned and the
good resolutions he had made that New Year's Day in the little brown
cottage.

No one ever again heard him say, "I fully intended." To intend was to
_do_ with him at last.




NEW YEAR'S EVE.