near.

Cheerful and patient always, poverty and pain seemed to have no
power to darken his bright spirit; for God's blessed charity had
gifted him with that inward strength and peace it so often brings to
those who seem to human eyes most heavily afflicted.

Secret tears fell sometimes on his pillow, and whispered prayers
went up; but Bess never knew it, and like a ray of sunshine, the
boy's tranquil presence lit up that poor home; and amid the darkest
hours of their adversity, the little rushlight of his childish faith
never wavered nor went out.

Below them lived the young man, no stranger now, but a true friend,
whose generous pity would not let them suffer any want he could
supply. Hunger and cold were hard teachers, but he learned their
lessons bravely, and though his frame grew gaunt and his eye hollow,
yet, at heart, he felt a better, happier man for the stern
discipline that taught him the beauty of self-denial and the
blessedness of loving his neighbor _better_ than himself.

The child's influence remained unchanged, and when anxiety or
disappointment burdened him, the young man sat at Jamie's bedside
listening to the boy's unconscious teaching, and receiving fresh
hope and courage from the childish words and the wan face, always
cheerful and serene.

With this example constantly before him, he struggled on, feeling
that if the world were cold and dark, he had within himself one true
affection to warm and brighten his hard life.