“There I was a little while ago complaining—­no, not quite complaining, but almost—­because I hadn’t anybody to keep me company.  Now I ’ve got somebody with a vengeance.  She’s awful heavy.  But, oh, dear! what a narrow escape I had!  I might have run into that bog, and that would have been a ’pretty how d ‘ye do,’ as Sarah says.  I was so busy thinking I forgot everything, and ran almost over little Sissy; and that shows, I s’pose, how without meaning it one can hurt somebody if one does n’t look out.”

And then, very carefully, so as not to wake his sleeping charge, he slipped his hand into his pocket and drew out his rule again.

“What a good friend you are!” he said to it.  “I really think you ’re better than any sword or poniard a body could have.  You ’ve saved me from danger twice now, and—­” But here he stared at it in dumb surprise, for even as he looked he saw appear upon its polished surface the words,—­

  Deep is the bog in which they sink
  Who ne’er on others’ sorrow think;
  Deeper the joy in which they rest
  Who ’ve served the weary and distressed.

And, sure enough, he felt so happy he could have sung aloud in spite of his weariness and fatigue.

But I could not begin to tell you of all his experiences, nor how unfailingly his little rule helped him to meet them successfully.

He thought a great deal about it and its magical power; but once or twice he did get to wondering why it should point to the straight path when the winding one was so much the prettier to see.

“Are the right ways always the ones we should n’t take if we had our own way?” he thought.  “Why is it that the right one always seems not so pretty as the other?  Seems to me some one told me once that the curved lines were ‘the lines of beauty.’” But before he had time fairly to consider the subject, his rule, which he happened to be holding in his hand, showed him this little verse,—­

  “Straight is the line of duty,
  Curved is the line of beauty;
  Follow th’ one and thou shalt see
  The other ever following thee.”

And this was always the way.  Whenever Lionel was puzzled about anything, his rule always made it clear to him.  And by and by, after he had met with all sorts of adventures, he began to wonder whether he was ever going to see the beggar again or reach his wonderful estate.

It was on a very beautiful day that he wondered this, and he was more than a little happy because he had just been applying his rule to unusually good effect, when, lo! there beside him stood the subject of his thoughts.  But oh! how changed he was!

Every rag upon him glowed and shimmered with a wondrous lustre, and the staff he carried blazed with light, while the basket upon his arm overflowed with the most beautiful blessings.

“I thought,” said the new-comer, “that I might risk giving you this encouragement.  It will not make you content to go no farther on now.  It will make you long to strive for greater good ahead.  You will not reach it until you have travelled a lifetime; but you will not despair, for you are being so blessed.  I have been permitted to give you a great gift.  It is for that I was begging you that day.  See, what a privilege it is to be able to beg so—­”