lations.

As the winter advanced, as the winds grew harsher, my avoidance of the
passage grew more marked, and one day I stopped to think, and asked
myself why I avoided it.

There was a faint warmth in the sky, and I heard my heart speaking to
me quite distinctly, and it said:--

"Go to the blind man--what matter about your ten minutes' delay; you
have been unhappy since you refrained from alms-giving, and the blind
beggar can feel the new year beginning."

"You see, sir, I have added some shirt buttons and studs to the
pencils. I don't know how they will go, but one never knows till one
tries."

Then he told me it was smallpox that destroyed his eyes, and he was
only eighteen at the time.

"You must have suffered very much when they told you your sight was
going?"

"Yes, sir. I had the hump for six weeks."

"What do you mean?"

"It doubled me up, that it did. I sat with my head in my hands for six
weeks."

"And after that?"

"I didn't think any more about it--what was the good?"

"Yes, but it must be difficult not to think, sitting here all alone."

"One mustn't allow one's self to give way. One would break down if one
did. I've some friends, and in the evening I get plenty of exercise."

"What do you do in the evenings?"

"I turn a hay-cutting machine in a stable."

"And you're quite contented?"

"I don't think, sir, a happier man than I passes through this gate-way
once a month."

He told me his little boy came to fetch him in the evening.

"You're married?"

"Yes, sir, and I've got four children. They're going away for their
holidays next week."

"Where are they going?"

"To the sea. It will do them good; a blow on the beach will do them a
power of good."

"And when they come back they will tell you about it?"

"Yes."

"And do you ever go away for a holiday?"

"Last year I went with a policeman. A gentleman who passes this way,
one of my friends, paid four shillings for me. We had a nice dinner in
a public house for a shilling, and then we went for a walk."

"And this year are you going with the policeman?"

"I hope so, a friend of mine gave me half-a-crown towards it."

"I'll give you the rest."

"Thankee, sir."

A soft south wind was blowing, and an instinct as soft and as gentle
filled my heart, and I went towards some trees. The new leaves were
beginning in the branches; and sitting where sparrows were building
their nests, I soon began to see further into life than I