certainly was sad and I made up my mind at the window that that man
would some day be sorry for an unnecessary act of cruelty. I am glad
that the gentleman is present to-night"--a deep silence and
breathlessness pervaded the audience--"for I am sure that he is sorry.
But here are the newsboys of the town. They are my invited guests
to-night. I want to say to the townspeople that the only kindly hand
ever laid on my head was the Vicar's. It is too late now to help me--I
am beyond your reach: but these boys are here, and they are serving
you with papers and earning a few pennies to appease hunger or to
clothe their bodies, and I want you to be kind to them."

After the lecture the man who had thrown me in the gutter came to me.
Of course, he had forgotten it. He had not the slightest idea he was
the man, but he said:

"What a dastardly shame!"

I gripped him by the hands, and said, "You, my brother, are the man
who did it." I tightened my grip, and said, "And I forgive you as
fully and freely as I possibly can. You are sorry, and I am
satisfied."

I studied in the military schools for a first-class military
certification of education, and got my promotion; but no sooner had
the studies ceased and promotion come than the disgust with military
life and its restrictions increased with such force that it became
unbearable. So I left the service.