your heart with vain
hopes and delusions. A mother's leanin's is the soul's deceivin's,--and
yer leanin' on a broken reed. If the boy truly found that gold he'd have
come to ye and said: 'Behold, mother, I have found gold in the highways
and byways; rejoice and be exceedin' glad!' and hev poured it inter yer
lap. Yes," continued Mr. Staples aggressively to the boy, as he saw him
stagger back with his pail in hand, "yes, sir, THAT would have been the
course of a Christian child!"

For a moment Johnny felt the blood boiling in his ears, and a thousand
words seemed crowding in his throat. "Then"--he gasped and choked.
"Then"--he began again, and stopped with the suffocation of indignation.

But Mr. Staples saw in his agitation only an awakened conscience, and,
nudging Mrs. Medliker, leaned eagerly forward for a reply. "Then," he
repeated, with suave encouragement, "go on, Johnny! Speak it out!"

"Then," said Johnny, in a high, shrill falsetto that startled them,
"then wot for did YOU pick up that piece o' gold in the road this
arternoon, and say nothin' of it to the men who followed ye? Ye did;
I seed yer! And ye didn't say nothin' of it to anybody; and ye ain't
sayin' nothin' of it now ter maw! and ye've got it in yer vest! And it's
mine, and I dropped it! Gimme it."

Astonishment, confusion, and rage swelled and empurpled Staples' face.
It was HIS turn to gasp for breath. Yet in the same moment he made
an angry dash at the boy. But Mrs. Medliker interfered. This was an
entirely new feature in the case. Great is the power of gold. A single
glance at the minister's confusion had convinced her that Johnny's
accusation was true, and it was Johnny's MONEY--constructively
HERS--that the minister was concealing. His mere possession of that gold
had more effect in straightening out her loose logic than any sense of
hypocrisy.

"You leave the boy be, Brother Staples," said Mrs. Medliker sharply. "I
reckon wot's his is hisn, spite of whar he got it."

Mr. Staples saw his mistake, and smiled painfully as he fumbled in his
waistcoat pocket. "I believe I DID pick up something," he said, "that
may or may not have been gold, but I have dropped it again or thrown
it away; and really it is of little concern in our moral lesson. For we
have only HIS word that it was really his! How do we KNOW it?"

"Cos it has my marks on it," said Johnny quickly; "it had a criss-cross
I scratched on it. I kin tell it good enuf."

Mr. Staples tu