r upon his knee, and told her to proceed with her story; and Milly,
after a final struggle with her tears, got the better of them, and was
able to give him a pretty clear account of what had happened.

"I had bought your pens and blotting-paper, uncle, and was going to a
picture-shop to spend the rest of my money when nurse had finished at
the grocer's. I was standing outside, when I saw a man coming along. He
limped, and his hat was broken in, and he was so ragged that I thought
he must be a probable son, and then I thought he might be Tommy going
home, and when I thought that, I couldn't think of nothing else, and I
forgot all about nurse, and I forgot she told me to stay there, and I
ran after him as hard as I could. I caught him up, and he looked very
astonished when I asked him was his name Tommy. He said, 'No,' and he
laughed at me, and then I asked him was he a probable son, because he
looked like one. He said he didn't know what kind of person that was.
And then I had to explain it to him. He told me he had never had a home
to run away from, so that wouldn't do; but he really looked just like
the man I've seen in Mr. Maxwell's picture, and I told him so, and then
I found out what he was, and I was so sorry, and yet I was so glad."

Milly paused, and her large, expressive eyes shone as she turned them up
to her uncle's face, and her voice dropped almost to a whisper as she
said,--

"I found out he was one of God's probable sons. When I asked him if he
had run away from God, he said yes, he supposed he had done that, so of
course he was ragged and unhappy."

"That is not always the case," put in Sir Edward, half touched, half
amused. "Sometimes it is very rich people who run away from God, and
they get richer when they are away from Him."

Milly looked puzzled.

"But they can't be happy, uncle. Oh, they never can be!"

"Perhaps not."

"Well, I talked to this poor man till we had walked quite away from the
shops, and then he turned down a lane, and I went with him; and we were
both rather tired, so we sat down together on some doorsteps inside an
archway, and he told me all about himself. His name is Jack, and his
father and mother are dead, like mine; and he got drunk one night, and
fell down and broke his arm, and then he went to a hospital; and when he
got well and went back to his work again, his master couldn't take him,
because some one else was in his place, and he couldn't get any work. I
asked him