e cast
off as unworthy by a community whose confidence he has most
shamefully abused."

"And so you will give an erring brother no chance for his life?"

"O yes. Every chance. But it would not be kindness to wink at his
errors and leave him free to continue in the practice of them, to
his own and others' injury. Having forfeited his right to the
confidence of this community by trespassing upon it, let him pay the
penalty of that trespass. It will be to him, doubtless, a salutary
lesson. A few years of confinement in a prison will give him time
for reflection and repentance; whereas, impunity in an evil course
could only have strengthened his evil purposes. When he has paid the
just penalty of his crime, let him go into another part of the
country, and among strangers live a virtuous life, the sure reward
of which is peace."

Mr. May shook his head negatively, at these remarks.

"No one errs on the side of kindness," he said, "while too many, by
an opposite course, drive to ruin those whom leniency might have
saved."

A short time after the occurrence of this little interview, Mr. May,
on returning home one evening, found his wife in much apparent
trouble.

"Has anything gone wrong, Ella?" he asked.

"Would you have believed it?" was Mrs. May's quick and excited
answer. "I caught Jane in my drawer to-day, with a ten dollar bill
in her hand which she had just taken out of my pocket book, that was
still open."

"Why, Ella!"

"It is too true! I charged it at once upon her, and she burst into
tears, and owned that she was going to take the money and keep it."

"That accounts, then, for the frequency with which you have missed
small sums of money for several months past."

"Yes. That is all plain enough now. But what shall we do? I cannot
think of keeping Jane any longer."

"Perhaps she will never attempt such a thing again, now that she has
been discovered."

"I cannot trust her. I should never feel safe a moment. To have a
thief about the house! Oh, no, That would never answer. She will
have to go."

"Well, Ella, you will have to do what you think best; but you
mustn't be too hard on the poor creature. You mustn't think of
exposing her, and thus blasting her character. It might drive her to
ruin."

"But, is it right for me, knowing what she is, to let her go quietly
into another family? It is a serious matter, husband."

"I don't know that you have anything to do with that. The safest
thing, in my o