Their servant had left them the day before, and they were spared the mortification of having such a witness of their humiliation.  Mrs. Wilmer found it somewhat difficult to prepare their food on the next morning, as even her kitchen furniture had nearly all shared the fate of the rest, and she found herself very feeble.  Something like three hundred dollars worth had been taken for a debt of forty or fifty.  The slender breakfast over, with the reprimand of the day before painfully fresh in his mind, Wilmer hastened away to the counting-room.  He had only been a few moments at the desk, when the partner who had spoken to him the day before, came up with the morning’s paper in his hand, and pointing to an advertisement of a sale of furniture seized for rent due by Theodore Wilmer, asked him if he was the person named.  Wilmer looked at him for some moments, vainly attempting to reply, his face exhibiting the most painful emotions—­finally, he laid his head upon the desk without a word, and gave way to tears.  It was a weakness, but he was not then superior to it.

“How much do you owe for rent?”

“Forty dollars.”

“Forty dollars!  And is it for this sum alone that your furniture has been taken?”

“That is all I owe for rent.”

“Then why did you not let us know your condition?  You should have had more consideration for your family.”

“Yesterday, sir,” Wilmer replied, somewhat bitterly, “I came here from dinner, after having been unavoidably detained with a sick child, resolved to conquer my reluctance, and ask for the loan of fifty dollars, to be deducted from my salary, at the rate of five dollars a month.  But your reproof for remissness deterred me.  And when I returned home, the work had been done.  They have left us but a bed, a few chairs, and a common table.  Oh, sir, it seems as if it would kill me!”

“But, my dear sir, when I complained, you owed it to yourself, and you owed it to me, to explain.  How could I know your peculiar situation?”

“Have you ever felt, sir, that no one cared for you?  As if even Heaven had forgotten you?  If not, then you cannot understand my feelings.  It may be wrong, but always meaning to act justly towards every one, I feel so humbled by accusation, that I have no heart to explain.  It seems to me that others should know that I would not wrong them.”

“It certainly is wrong, Mr. Wilmer.  Suppose you had simply mentioned yesterday the illness of your child; I should at once have withdrawn my censure, and probably have made some kind inquiry; you would then have been more free to prefer your request, which would have been at once granted.  See what it would have saved your family.”

“I see it all.  Feeling always obscures the judgment.”

“To one in your particular situation, a right knowledge of the truth you have just uttered is all-important.  No matter what may be your condition, never suffer feeling to become so acute as to dim your sober thoughts, and paralyze your right actions.  But here are a hundred dollars.  Redeem your things, and get on your feet again.  Take them as an advance on your salary for the last year; and draw six hundred instead of five, in future.”