“Step in here just one moment,” said the young man.  The request was made in a way that left Mr. Edgar no alternative but compliance.  So he entered the humble dwelling.  He found himself in a small, unlighted room, adjoining one in which a lamp was burning, and in which was a young woman, plainly but neatly dressed, and four children, the youngest lying in a cradle.  The woman held in her hand a warm Bay State shawl, which, after examining a few moments, with a pleased expression of countenance, she threw over her shoulders, and glanced at herself in a looking-glass.  The oldest of the children, a boy, was trying on a new overcoat; and his sister, two years younger, had a white muff and a warm woollen shawl, in which her attention was completely absorbed.  A smaller child had a new cap, and he was the most pleased of any.

“Oh, isn’t father good to buy us all these? and we wanted them so much,” said the oldest of the children.  “Yesterday morning, when I told him how cold I was going to school, he said he was sorry, but that I must try and do without a coat this winter, for he hadn’t money enough to get us all we wanted.  How did he get more money, mother?”

“To a kind gentleman, who helped your father, we are indebted for these needed comforts,” replied the mother.

“He must be a good man,” said the boy.  “What’s his name?”

“His name is Mr. Edgar.”

“I will ask God to bless him to-night when I say my prayers,” innocently spoke out the youngest of the three children.

“What does all this mean?” asked the money-lender, as he hastily retired from the room he had entered.

“If you had charged me one per cent. on my note, this scene would never have occurred,” answered the mechanic.  “With the sum you generously saved me, I was able to buy these comforts.  My heart blesses you for the deed; and if the good wishes of my happy family can throw sunshine across your path, it will be full of brightness.”

Too much affected to reply, Mr. Edgar returned the warm pressure of the hand which had grasped his, and glided away.

A gleam of sunshine had indeed fallen along the pathway of the money-lender.  Home had a brighter look as he passed his own threshold.  He felt kinder and more cheerful; and kindness and cheerfulness flowed back to him from all the inmates of his dwelling.  He half wondered at the changed aspect worn by every thing.  His dreams that night were not of losses, fires, and the wreck of dearly-cherished hopes, but of the humble home made glad by his generous kindness.  Again the happy mother, the pleased children, and the grateful father, were before him, and his own heart leaped with a new delight.

“It was a small act—­a very light sacrifice on my part,” said Mr. Edgar to himself, as he walked, in a musing mood, toward his office on the next morning.  “And yet of how much real happiness has it been the occasion!  So much that a portion thereof has flowed back upon my own heart.”