‘Thank you, Sir.  I wanted to know if he had been a bad boy.’

’That I cannot tell.  Why do you wish to know?  Was it because he had such an affliction?’

‘Yes, Sir.’

‘I don’t think that is quite the way to look at troubles,’ said Mr. Cope.  ’I should think his accident had been a great blessing to him, if it took him out of temptation, and led him to think more of God.’

‘But isn’t it punishment?’ said Alfred, not able to get any farther; but Mr. Cope felt that he was thinking of himself more than of Jem.

‘All our sufferings in this life come as punishment of sin,’ he said.  ’If there had been no sin, there would have been no pain; and whatever we have to bear in this life is no more than is our due, whatever it may be.’

‘Every one is sinful,’ said Alfred slowly; ’but why have some more to bear than others that may be much worse?’

’Did you never think it hard to be kept strictly, and punished by your good mother?’

Alfred answered rather fretfully, ’But if it is good to be punished, why ain’t all alike?’

’God in His infinite wisdom sees the treatment that each particular nature needs.  Some can be better trained by joy, and some by grief; some may be more likely to come right by being left in active health; others, by being laid low, and having their faults brought to mind.’

Alfred did not quite choose to take this in, and his answer was half sulky: 

‘Bad boys are quite well!’

’And a reckoning will be asked of them.  Do not think of other boys.  Think over your past life, of which I know nothing, and see whether you can believe, after real looking into it, that you have done nothing to deserve God’s displeasure.  There are other more comforting ways of bringing joy out of pain; but of this I am sure, that none will come home to us till we own from the bottom of our heart, that whatever we suffer in this life, we suffer most justly for the punishment of our sins.  God bless and help you, my poor boy.  Good night.’

With these words he went down-stairs, for well he knew that while Alfred went on to justify himself, no peace nor joy could come to him, and he thought it best to leave the words to work in, praying in his heart that they might do so, and help the boy to humility and submission.

Finding Mrs. King in her kitchen, he paused and said, ’We shall have a Confirmation in the spring, Mrs. King; shall not you have some candidates for me?’

’My daughter will be very glad, thank you, Sir; she is near to seventeen, and a very good girl to me.  And Harold, he is but fourteen—­would he be old enough, Sir?’

’I believe the Bishop accepts boys as young; and he might be started in life before another opportunity.’

’Well, Sir, he shall come to you, and I hope you won’t think him too idle and thoughtless.  He’s a good-hearted boy, Sir; but it is a charge when a lad has no father to check him.’